Marauders Year 1
by hogwartshoneybadger
Summary: A story about four boys, the Marauders, and their first year at Hogwarts. They begin their mischief in year one and it doesn't end, since mischief is never really managed.
1. Chapter 1: Sirius Black

DISCLAIMER: This is not mine. The wonderful magical world of Harry Potter belongs to the one and only J.K. Rowling.

There is a quote in this chapter that belongs in one of the books (Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling), it's not word for word but give credit where credit is due.

Sirius Black

The young boy approached the nine and three quarters platform, with his mother, father and brother on his tail. He was shaking with excitement! Sirius would finally be away from his godforsaken, nutter, prejudice pureblood family. The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black was one of, if not the most, esteemed pureblood families in all of Great Britain. Sirius thought it was a load of hogwash, since his family also happened to be the most bigoted and pureblood fanatical families in the world. They were cruel and up to their eyes in the dark arts, and had a habit of pruning the family tree every once and a while. His mother was especially good at this. Despite his hatred for the House of Black, he was its heir and he had to behave accordingly because in his father's words, "You don't do what you want, you do what is expected of you."

Sirius quickly walked through the platform before his family, enjoying the brief minute alone without them. When they walked through the barrier to send him off to Hogwarts, they came to a stop. "Kreacher, load these things onto the train. And try not to drop any of Sirius' things or you'll be dropped on your head, repeatedly." his mother Walburga hissed.

His mother was usually kind to Kreacher, but today she seemed very irritable, or more irritable than usual.

His mother had dark black hair, slick and clean. She had a pointed nose that was perfect for when she snubbed people and scoffed at them, her face was perfect for portraying the look of disdain and disapproval. She had blue eyes, not beautiful, but cold and calculating. Whenever he was around people he would look down, he didn't want to be seen that way as he had her very icy blue eyes. She was a thin lanky woman, and he had inherited that but in a masculine way. His mother scared him almost as much as his father, who had a strong and sturdy build with sleek black hair. It was perfect and put in place, similar to Sirius' although his was a bit longer and very unaristocratic.

His father disliked it immensely and pointed it out, not too often though because he had other things to criticize Sirius on. Regulus trailed behind him, an almost exact clone of Sirius. One could tell that they were brothers and thankfully Regulus was not coming to Hogwarts with him this year. His father scoffed, his tone laced with disgust, "I cannot believe our son has to be in the same building as those dirty bloods. Our son, rooming with _mudbloods_ and half-bloods."

His mother let out a disdainful comment, which she excelled at, "It's not going to get any better with _Albus Dumbledore_ becoming the new headmaster this year," she said as if she was saying a dirty word.

Orion Black shook his head, "Right you are Walburga," Orion turned to face Sirius, "Listen to me boy, Slytherin is the only place that knows who is worthy to practice magic and that is where you are going to be. Do not tarnish our family name there, do you understand? You will not like the consequences, because believe me, it'll hurt you more than it will hurt me."

Sirius nodded quietly. No hugs or kisses were exchanged, between his parents and him not that he was expecting that, just a cold goodbye and a warning. "Bye Sirius." Regulus said quietly.

"Bye Reggie. I'll see you soon." he said with a small smile.

Reggie lingered for a moment before turning to follow their parents. Their family was cold, cunning and ambitious. _All I have to do is get into Slytherin, I'll be good. It's the best for the family. But since when do I care about doing what's 'right' by my family?_ Sirius stepped onto the train, strutting confidently. Despite Sirius being constantly put down by his family, he had an exceeding amount of confidence. He was rich, good looking and clever. As he walked down the train corridor, he looked for an empty compartment. He didn't want to sit with anybody. All he wanted was to be alone for a while, he didn't like people very much. Sirius spotted the sight of platinum blonde hair, which instantly encouraged him to hide but it was too late, he had been spotted. His cousin Narcissa, a lean and slim girl, who despite being "nice looking" was cold and harsh, like her icy blue eyes. Unlike the rest of their relations, she was distinct since she had very blonde, almost white, hair. It always looked clean and shiny. Sometimes Sirius had the sneaking suspicion that she wasn't his Uncle Cygnus' daughter, but he kept quiet about this. Despite her contrasting looks, she reminded him a lot of his mother. "Hello cousin," she said in an icy voice.

Sirius was instantly annoyed, "Hello Narcissa."

Narcissa was _not_ the cousin he wanted to see; his favorite, Andromeda, had graduated the year before which was a great disappointment to Sirius. He hadn't heard from her in a while and suspected she was no longer interested in talking to him, why would she be? Narcissa gave an annoyed sigh, "I suppose I should congratulate you, but then again, we'll have to wait until the sorting ceremony won't we?"

Her tone was taunting, but Sirius ignored it and shrugged, "I guess we will."

Narcissa walked past him with a fine amount of determination, allowing Sirius to escape and move on. After looking around for a while he finally saw a compartment that was empty and plopped down, staring out the window, with nothing to entertain himself but his thoughts. _Finally some peace and quiet away from those nutters_ he thought. As the train started to move, a young boy in a wine red wool jumper yanked the door open and dragged in his very large trunk, and shoved it under the seat opposite of Sirius. The boy didn't even notice him until he turned around, "Oh sorry!" he said, "Everywhere else in the back of the train had people in it. Do you mind?"

Sirius _did_ mind, he longed to be alone for the first time in his life but seeing as how the boy already threw his heavy luggage under the seat, Sirius felt like he didn't have a choice but to say yes. The boy was his height and had messy black hair that stuck up in all directions, and the front was long enough to block his hazel eyes which he had to keep pushing it out of the way. Sirius gestured for him to sit down. Sirius' mother would've been mortified, a thought which amused him. The boy threw himself onto the seat across from Sirius and kicked back before realizing that he failed to properly greet Sirius. He quickly turning to shake hands and introduce himself, "Name's James, James Potter."

Sirius extended his hand, "I'm Sirius Black, Sirius like the star."

Sirius said the following first to show that his first name was actually Sirius, which he hated to do. He was sure the boy would flee to another compartment the moment he heard the surname, Black, but instead Potter laid back and said, "That name must come with a bunch of jokes, right? Sirius? Are you Sirius?" he laughed and smiled, showing straight pearly white teeth. "I like it. I have a regular name, James. Not too funny now is it?"

Sirius smirked, "Not really."

Sirius quickly realized that James' last name sounded familiar, he'd heard his mother say it a few times, "You said your last name was Potter? You wouldn't happen to be related to the bloke who invented Sleekeazy's Hair Potion now would you?"

James smiled, "Yeah he's my dad. Fleamont Potter!"

Sirius laughed loudly, "Oh Merlin! Tames the most bothersome barnet my ass! Your hair's sticking up from every part of your head!"

James huffed, "It works, I just don't use it. It's my _style._ And as far as I can see, your hair doesn't seem to use it either."

"No I don't." Sirius said proudly as he wiped a fake tear of laughter from his eye, "Don't need it, because mine is perfect."

James nodded with a smile, "Sure is".

Sirius' mother said more about the Potter's than their hair potion, she liked to note that they were blood traitors but Sirius in desperate need of a friend, didn't care and didn't like the term anyways. It was just a word that meant you weren't a jerk. Besides, befriending a Potter would make his mum livid. Sirius ears pricked like a dog when he heard, "You better be in Slytherin."

Very early for someone to remind him, but he saw James' attention divert from him to another. **The two of them looked over to the adjacent compartment where a greasy haired boy talked to a very cute redhead. "Slytherin?" James called, "Who'd want to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" James asked, turning to Sirius.**

 **"My whole family's been in Slytherin." he muttered in an ashamed voice.**

 **James disregarded this information and joked, "Blimey! And I thought you seemed alright!" he laughed.**

 **Sirius smiled, which pleased James. He was liking him more and more. "Well," Sirius chuckled, "Maybe I'll break the tradition. Where are you heading if you've got the choice?"**

 **James climbed up onto the seat and thrust an invisible sword into the air, " I aim to go to Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!' Like my dad..."**

 **The greasy hair boy snorted, "Got a problem with that?" James asked harshly.**

 **Sirius found himself disliking the other boy every mounting second. "No," the boy said in a sneer, "If you'd rather be brainy than brawny."**

 **Sirius, personally offended that Greasy McGrease face had just insulted the boy in front of him retorted, "And where are you going seeing as how you're neither?"**

 **The redhead civilly said, "Come on. Let's find another compartment." (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 33)**

The two got up and left the compartment next to them, and James got up to shut the door.

"Well, he's annoying…" James said as he sat back down.

"And greasy…" Sirius added, "He looks like my house elf, except with hair."

"If you can call _that_ hair. Your elf caught a break, probably superior in the looks department. The girl's cute." James said as Sirius snorted.

Sirius asked, "So Gryffindor? That's where you'd choose to go?"

"I'm hoping so. It's the best. Best house, best quidditch team, coolest people. Seriously." he said with a wide grin.

Sirius couldn't help but laugh. "Everyone I know says that Slytherin is the best. My whole family's been there."

James went on, "It's a matter of opinion, I think Gryffindor is the best, so that's where I'm aiming to be. My whole family has been there too."

Sirius nodded, "Well I reckon that's where you'll end up."

James smiled, "I hope so! It'd be cool if you could too–er–um–if you wanted to." James said slowly.

Sirius smiled, "I guess we'll see, but my family's expecting me to be in Slytherin."

Sirius hadn't heard anything but the negatives about the other houses so once James went on and on talking about Gryffindor and how great it was, Sirius thought that was the one he ought to belong in, but his parents would kill him when he returned home if he went into Gryffindor. He'd enjoy seeing them angry if they weren't so cruel. Slytherin just didn't sound that it would suit him, so he quietly hoped that he would get into Gryffindor and be able to be with the nice boy who called himself James Potter.

"Anything off the trolly dears?" a jolly female voice asked.

They looked over to see a plump woman with very red cheeks push a candy cart, "Yes please!" they said eagerly.

 **They grabbed two of everything to eat. "What kind of train eats too much?" with a mouth full of food, James asked smiling, "A chew chew train!" he laughed (Deathly Hallows, JK Rowling).**

Sirius laughed hard at that awful joke. The two talked for a good long while, "What are you most excited about? I'm excited about quidditch! Of course that's in our second year, but it won't stop me from trying out for the team. I brought my own racing broom too, it's the newest model: The Zimbar 2000. Personally, they'd be foolish not to let me play since I've been breathing and thinking about quidditch since birth. My favorite team is the Holyhead Harpies, a bit cliche sure, but they _are_ the best. Who's your favorite team?" James asked.

Sirius smiled, "The Chudley Cannons, which is actually the best team."

James scoffed, "Are you kidding me? They haven't won since 1892!"

Sirius leaned forward, "Yes, but they obviously have more skill. The Harpies shoot first and ask questions later."

"It's effective." James said with a firm nod, "But it's okay, I won't judge you for your poor taste in quidditch teams."

Sirius laughed "Gee, thanks."

The train ride was shorter with the company of Potter and the treats they bought. He could tell Potter was spoiled as he had a look of being well cared for. Sirius noticed rather quickly that James liked the sound of his own voice and found himself to be the most interesting bloke in the room. They had a lot in common, they were both pureblood's who disagreed with the pureblood elitism, how amazing the pair of them were, and both had an interest in muggle culture. Both of them wanted to take muggle studies once they got the chance to choose their own classes. Their upbringings were very different despite being of pureblood status.

Sirius told James about the first time pureblood superiority was wrong, "So this man kicked me out of his shop, because I said the word _mudblood,_ " Sirius said the word so casually and only realized his mistake when James went wide eyed, "Sorry!" Sirius apologized quickly, "I'm still learning…"

James looked away for a moment, filling Sirius with worry, before he returned his gaze back onto him, "Just don't say it again…" James said cautiously.

Sirius nodded, "Anyway, I went back and asked him why. He went on a long rant about why pureblood supremacy is wrong and how fascinating muggles are. He showed me things and talked about them, and being the studious and curious child I am," Sirius said proudly, earning a snort from James which he ignored, "I researched more into them. They're very fascinating."

James agreed, "I'm very fascinated with them, but I just don't understand how they can live without quidditch! I mean sure they can't fly, but it's the best sport in the world."

James went on and on about quidditch, a topic that he thoroughly enjoyed discussing. He seemed to have an interest, although faint, in muggle sports. "It doesn't matter if you're a pureblood, half-blood or muggleborn, as long as you got talent on the field…that's what matters. Take Jo Kingsley." James said, referencing a muggleborn quidditch player.

The truth was that Sirius didn't know about anyone named Jo Kingsley as his mother forbid Sirius and Regulus from watching quidditch matches now that there were muggleborns on the team, but his Uncle Alphard always wrote to him about what happened. Alphard Black was Sirius' favorite uncle and the only family member (besides his cousin Andromeda) who had his head screwed on straight. James surprised Sirius as every pureblood he's met has been an elitist, cold, calculating and curt, but James was different and it seemed he came from a kind family. Sirius had never known anything else since his parents determined who he was supposed to hang out with, but they couldn't control him anymore now that he was at Hogwarts and going to be a Gryffindor, could they? Sirius didn't reveal a lot to Potter just yet, just that his family wasn't as warm as James' family sounded to be. The name Black could scare off any decent human being, so he thought it best that he keep quiet for now.

Thankfully, James didn't inquire too much into Sirius' life and desires as James thought the most interesting topic to be discussed was him. "Oh look!" James said excitedly, staring out of the window, "We're here!"

Sirius launched himself out of his seat and saw that they were about to pull into the station. They quickly changed into their robes as the train began to slow and stepped off of it. They followed a large hairy man by the name of Hagrid and stepped onto a few boats. The sun began to set and the water glittered under the reflection of the moon and the bright windows from the castle. It was ginormous and slightly intimidating; it was all stone with tall towers but ultimately beautiful. Sirius sucked in his breath in amazement as they rowed up to the castle, "This is so cool!" whispered James full of excitement.

"I can already tell there will be so much to do." said Sirius in awe as they rode to the glittering castle.

"Not if you're eaten by the giant squid" said a boy coldly.

James and Sirius turned to find a boy next to them with a sneer. It was the boy they met on the train who didn't seem to get any less annoying and intrusive. He had greasy black hair which made Sirius think that his mother shouldn't bother him too much when he looked at this kid. "We'd fight it off," said Sirius confidently but sounded more like arrogance.

James chimed in, "Fearlessly I might add."

They saw a plump boy off on the far corner of the boat smile. "I guess that'd be two less fools to roam around these halls." the greasy boy scoffed.

James and Sirius looked at each other, waiting for the other to respond and finally James did, "So it'd be easier to polish it with that greasy hair of yours, eh?"

The boy's eyes were fired with rage and just as he was about to say something Hagrid called for their attention. He went over the basics but all he and Potter heard was, "blah blah blah danger, blah blah blah squid, blah blah blah death. Whatever."

They were led up to the castle, which was glittering with lights. It was beautifully reflected over the lake and was by all meaning of the word, magical. Simply breathtaking. They stopped with the other first years in front of a woman who both of them knew would not be fun to mess with, but that most likely wouldn't stop James. Professor Mcgonnagal was a tall woman with a prim expression and black hair held back in a tight bun, she wasn't that old and looked to be in her mid to late thirties but nevertheless seemed to be intimidating and wise beyond her years. **"Welcome," she started, "Now in a moment I will lead you into the Great Hall where you will begin your sorting into one of the four houses. There is: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. While you are here, your house will be like your family. Any excellence achieved will earn you house points and any rule breaking will lose you house points. Whatever house has earned the most points at the end of the year will be awarded the House Cup and an additional treat." (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling).**

A boy behind them kept trying to stand on his toes to see what was going on, clearly too short. James politely stepped aside and Sirius followed suit so the other boy could see. It was the same boy who smiled at their humour. Beads of sweat could be seen on the boy's face, but he couldn't be as nervous as Sirius. He was terrified. Sirius looked at James who gave him a reassuring smile. Sirius' heart was beating fast, "You'll be fine." James whispered.

Sirius took a deep breath and gave James a nod. The doors opened and the two walked in or strut in. Everything was so rushed and they went in, James leaned into him "Don't be scared."

James smiled at Sirius, a smile that was so comforting it relieved Sirius of his worry momentarily."What if I'm not in Gryffindor?" Sirius asked, suddenly thinking of this problem.

"We'll still hang out no matter what house we're in." James paused for a moment, "It won't matter to me at all."

That was a big relief to Sirius that he would have a friend still, but it didn't make him rest that he had a duty to fulfill. The names went fast, only two A's and two B's before they called "Black, Sirius" Professor McGonagall bellowed.

Oh nuts! The Slytherins whispered excitedly and a few of them wooed. Sirius slowly walked to and up the stairs, scared and probably looked bloodless until he saw this raggedy old hat that had a sneer, which would scare some but his mother was scarier. Suddenly his heart started pounding, and instantly got cold feet about going into Gryffindor. He _couldn't_ be sorted into anything but Slytherin. He'd surely be disowned and he had no where to go and he'd have no money, well perhaps to his Uncle Alphard's but he was always away on business anyway and couldn't really take care of a child. The Slytherins at the table shifted, expecting his arrival, which greatly annoyed him. _I haven't even been sorted yet, of course I know where I'm going._ He walked up and sat down on the stool and heard the hat whisper to him, "Black eh? I put most of your family in Slytherin you know?"

"Yeah I know." Sirius said under his breath.

"You have a lot of its traits, but perhaps…" it muttered.

It continued to mumble and Sirius was getting rather annoyed, "Are you getting anywhere?" he asked impatiently.

"Such a rude boy." the hat said greasily.

"Look, sort me into anything _but_ Slytherin. Gryffindor preferably..." he said eagerly.

The hat seemed to mind his words and continued to mumble to itself. Finally the hat muttered, "Yes boy. Loyal. Clever. Daring…I can tell boy. I'm always right, I'm always right," and then the hat bellowed, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Sirius couldn't believe it, he was put into Gryffindor! Sirius sat there stunned for a minute, he'd actually done it! He had actually been sorted into Gryffindor! He got up as the Gryffindor table clapped politely but not at all enthusiastically whereas the Slytherin table broke out into a few murmurs and confused looks, which Sirius tried to ignore. Narcissa's mouth hung open in shock and gave him a questionable look. He faltered for a moment, but what caused him to regain his courage was James who was cheering the loudest of all as he beamed a white stream of teeth and held two thumbs up. "Woo!" James shouted as he pumped his fist into the air.

James' smile reassured Sirius who hopped off the seat and sprinted to the Gryffindor table full of excitement. Despite knowing he'd be in for it with his family, at the moment nothing could tarnish this feeling, nothing.


	2. Chapter 2: James Potter

DISCLAIMER: This is not mine. The wonderful magical world of Harry Potter belongs to the one and only J.K. Rowling.

James

James stopped his cheering but continued to beam with excitement that Sirius had been sorted into Gryffindor, he had hoped he would. A blonde girl beside him asked, "Where do you want to go?"

James replied "'Gryffindor."

"Like your friend?" the girl asked.

James nodded brightly, "Yep. The best of the best gets into the best."

"Hm, well I was aiming for Ravenclaw. My mum was there, but I'm not too sure. You have to answer a _riddle_ to get into the common room and I don't want to make that commitment." she explained, "I'm hopeless with riddles."

James smiled, "I'm sure that's not true."

James heard a mutter behind him. "Pity no one here values _intelligence._ "

James turned around sharply and saw the boy who had been so bothersome on the boat. James walked over to him and snapped at him, "I'm getting really tired of you, you little grease ball."

His dislike for this boy was increasing by the second and he glared at him. To his amusement, James was easily taller than him and the greasy boy was about to snap at him but a sharp voice said, "Don't dignify that with a response Severus."

The young redhead had walked up to them and got into James' face which gave him a clear view of her. She had fiery red hair that had matched the fiery tone in her voice and no doubt matched her personality, she had green eyes. Beautiful green almond shaped eyes that were like emeralds, twinkling under the light of the candles hovering above them. She had a heart shaped face adorned with freckles, as if snow had just landed on them. She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, he was speechless, but she was not. "Leave him alone," she said sternly.

His awe of her beauty was quickly fading and James was getting annoyed with her. "He started it." he said as if he were a six year old child.

The girl narrowed her eyes and turned around quickly and walked away with Severus, allowing her hair to whip him in the face. Never had he ever, not had a witty and clever response. He returned back to the blonde girl, who was now standing awkwardly by him. He simmered in silence, before he noticed the red head move onto the platform. Her name must have been called as she walked up the steps to the sorting hat confidently.

He had missed her name. He couldn't ask the boy obviously, who had since moved away from James and he likely wouldn't give a glass of water if James were on fire, _he'd probably stand there and drink it_. It didn't matter though because James needed to know her name and then the hat bellowed "GRYFFINDOR!"

Gryffindor. Sirius was in Gryffindor, so was the girl and now James wanted to be more than ever. He needed to know her name. He began to imagine the witty banter the two of them would share. She could have easily been placed in Ravenclaw but he was glad she was not. The hat went through the names and James' patience was waning, he wanted to be called and sorted immediately. The blonde girl was called up and gave a short wave of farewell to him. She was sorted into James' desired house as well.

He folded his arms and tapped his left foot in annoyance, one kid even had a hat stall, looking very nervous as he sat on the stool for a good five minutes but ended up being sorted into Gryffindor. _Great! Now, can the stupid hat finally sort me?_ His thoughts must have been heard by the hat itself, because finally his name was called, "James Potter!"

Sirius' attention focused on James like a dog who had caught a scent of a hare. James almost sprinted up the steps, but realized too late that he'd look too eager and too much eagerness was ' _uncool'_. He sat on the stool and waited for Professor McGonagall to place the hat on his head. He was ready to whisper his desire to be in the brave house but the hat barely touched his head when it yelled, "I already know boy. GRYFFINDOR!"

James' heart swelled with excitement and quickly brushed the hat off, smiling. The Gryffindor table clapped wildly and with excitement, more than Sirius had received. He swiftly stepped off the platform, but with enough bravado to be impressive. He had a girl to impress after all, since he probably didn't make a good impression with her when they first spoke, or the second time they spoke. The redhead sat next to a fatter or at least heavier young boy, whom he recognized as the hat stall, across from Sirius.

 _Sirius!_ He saw Sirius looking at him eagerly and joined him, giving him a high five. "I'm so glad you got into Gryffindor mate. I was worried for a second." James said, flashing his winning smile.

"I wasn't. The hat knows to put the best people in the best house, and we're the best." Sirius said in a smug tone,"My family won't be too pleased, but I wish I could say I care. I got exactly what I wanted."

James nodded excitedly, "Me too. In all honesty, I would've left wherever they sorted me and joined you here."

"Some nerve." Sirius cracked a smile, "Explains why you're in Gryffindor then…" Sirius laughed.

Their laughter was silenced when they heard, "Shh! I'm trying to listen." the redhead whispered harshly.

James scoffed and was about to retort when he heard Sirius speak, "Look, there's another one."

James attention broke from the redhead, slightly put out because he wanted to engage in a witty banter with her. Instead he followed Sirius' gaze and looked up onto the stage, seeing a frail and lanky boy climb the steps. It was hard to determine what his expression actually was as he looked pale and weak which could easily be mistaken for nerves. He had light brown hair that was combed neatly, which seemed to be the only tidy part to him as his robes looked second hand.

"Poor kid, looks like he's been around one too many dementors." Sirius said in a hushed voice.

James nodded in agreement and returned his attention to the frail and weak looking boy. He politely placed himself on the stool and a few moments passed, not long enough to be a hat stall, before the hat cried out, "GRYFFINDOR!"

James and Sirius clapped excitedly with the rest of the table. The boy got off the stool and made his way to the table, looking quite frightened despite the faces of friendly upperclassmen giving him looks of reassurance. The wide boy sitting next to the red head, eagerly gestured the other boy over and made room, now allowing the frail mousy haired boy to sit by him, sandwiched between the girl and him. "Thanks." the boy said quietly with a weak smile.

"Congrats!" James said enthusiastically.

The boy smiled at James and focused his attention on the sorting. "Quite a lot of us this year." the hat stall said eagerly with delight in his eyes.

"Oh this is Peter Pettigrew." Sirius said quickly, "I was talking to him before you got sorted."

James shook hands with Peter who had been called a few moments before himself, "Nice to meet you." James said.

"Nice to meet you too." Peter squeaked.

The boy looked excited to be talked to. Peter Pettigrew wasn't too tall and probably a few inches shorter than Sirius, Peter had a wide waist but wasn't quite fat and had mousy brown hair. He had a pointed nose that stuck out and was adorned with freckles, like the girl's. Pettigrew wasn't too impressive upon James' first impression. In fact, James would describe him as average. James was surprised that Sirius even talked to the boy. Sirius seemed, at least to James, to be arrogant and quite choosy who he acquainted himself with. Then again, people who were sorted into Gryffindor were the best, so it kind of made sense.

"I saw you and the greasy boy from the boat, what happened?" asked Sirius.

James scoffed. "Ugh, grease ball over there was just hating on others."

Sirius' eyes flashed with anger, but before he could say something James interrupted, "The girl stopped me from taking it any further, the red head right there," James whispered as he eyed the girl, who was _not_ paying attention to him, "What's her name? I didn't catch it."

Both Sirius and Peter shrugged, and James sighed. "Well she's Severus' friend. Oh that's his name."

Sirius muttered, "I don't care what his bloody name is. And if she's his friend, I reckon we'll find ways to avoid her too. No need to know her if she accompanies _him._ "

James was a bit disappointed in that, but Peter seemed to pick up that he wanted to know her. "Well, we can't. She's a Gryffindor and so are we. We are bound to find out her name sooner or later." Peter said, giving James a reassuring smile.

James brightened up and grinned back at Peter. Sirius had returned his limited attention to the ceremony. "SLYTHERIN!" bellowed the sorting hat.

"Look, Snivellus got sorted into Slytherin." Sirius noted, "Won't have to deal with him too much."

"I think it's Severus" said Peter.

"Whatever, Snivellus suits him." Sirius said looking both at Peter and James who smiled and snickered.

"Ugh, can you imagine being sorted _after_ him. Imagine all of the grease on your head." Peter said in revulsion.

"I feel more pity for the hat than the person." James said, his voice lined with distaste.

The Head Boy glared at them and put a finger to their lips to shush them, and they did it for a second until the Head Boy turned around. James had noticed that the redhead had moved further away from them, and was now positioned between the blonde and an older girl. The Sorting Ceremony finally ended and Professor Dumbledore gave a quick speech and then allowed the feast to commence. The food was decadent and delicious, James and Sirius shared a roast and Peter devoured a ham. The best part was dessert, an assortment of puddings. "My mum was afraid I'd go hungry…" Peter said with a mouthful of food.

"I guess that won't be a problem," grinned James as he chewed on a treacle tart.

He could hardly believe that anything would sustain Peter's appetite. With a full mouth, James said "My mum and dad will be so excited about my sorting."

"My mum won't believe it! No one would have ever expected _me_ to be in _Gryffindor_! _I_ didn't even expect it! My mum's a Hufflepuff you know? No one in her family has ever been a Gryffindor before. I'm a half blood–she's a witch and my dad's a muggle. I hope that's okay…" Peter said slowly and cautiously, as if this information was sensitive.

"Why wouldn't it be okay?" smiled James.

Peter's eyes brightened at James' acceptance, and Sirius smiled reassuringly. "Before the sorting, I could have sworn you two were brothers." he said, staring at the both of them in awe. James looked at Sirius curiously. They _could_ be brothers, since they both had raven black hair and very nice fair skin. James' nose was a little longer than Sirius', but other than that, they could be related. They looked back at Peter, "Nope." they said in unison.

"I'm an only child. One of a kind. A miracle child. The greatest gift given to the world," he said, lifting his chin up high and puffing out his chest.

"What about you Sirius?" Peter asked, quickly switching the question to Sirius.

Why would he ask Sirius, when clearly James was the most interesting person in the room? Sirius looked startled by the question, "I have one brother, Regulus. He's a year younger than me. We actually look a lot alike, although I'm more beautiful and clever." he said in a smug tone before shrugging as he received raised eyebrows from James and Peter, "It's just the truth."

James rolled his eyes. Clearly Sirius thought _he_ was the most interesting person in the room. James switched the question to Peter, "What about you Peter?"

"I'm an only child, but I wish I did have siblings. It'd be cool to have someone to share everything with and be loved by unconditionally."

Sirius scoffed, "In my family, the only love we have _is_ conditional. Actually, I wouldn't go as far as to say the word _'_ love'," Sirius looked thoughtful for a moment, "Well, I guess Regulus isn't too bad, and neither is my cousin Andromeda. As for the sharing, I could do without it. Not that I ever had to of course; being the heir of the House of Black _does_ have its perks."

"Well you'll be sharing a room." James said thoughtfully before brightening up, "Hey!"

"Hey." Sirius smiled.

James looked at Sirius and Peter, "Do you want to room together?" he asked excitedly.

"The three of us?" Peter asked shyly.

It looked like Peter didn't think that James could be talking about him, but when James nodded excitedly, Peter's eyes brightened. "That'd be so cool!"

Sirius grinned, "Oh this will be so much fun!"

"This is the best birthday ever!" Peter said as he took in a mouthful of pudding.

James and Sirius dropped their spoons, "It's your birthday today?" James asked, blindsided by this important piece of information.

Peter nodded, "Mhm." he mumbled as he chewed on his food, "I'm turning eleven today!"

Sirius looked at James and then to Peter, "Why you should've told us! Quick, we have to get him a gift." Sirius said in an urgent tone.

Peter shook his head, "That's not necessary."

James waved this information off with his hand and looked around for something to make a gift. "Peter Pettigrew, I vow to get you something by 11:59PM tonight."

Peter smiled and looked away shyly, "You don't have to."

"Yes we _have_ to. Isn't that right James?" Sirius asked, turning to his new best friend.

James smiled confidently, very pleased with himself that his first idea was confirmed to be brilliant. James still felt like they should do something, so he did something that'd be considered either quite brave or quite embarrassing. He stood on his seat, noticing Peter going pale and Sirius looking at him curiously, "Oi Gryffindor! It's this bloke, Peter Pettigrew's birthday! Let's sing him a song."

James heart swelled up as the entire Gryffindor table nodded and sang Peter ' _Happy Birthday'._ Peter was beet red but smiling; James couldn't tell if he were embarrassed or not. "Oh thank Merlin that went well!" he gasped as he sat back down.

The other houses looked at them a little bit annoyed, but the three boys didn't care. "You didn't have to make such a fuss," Peter smiled.

"Of course I did!" James chirped as he soaked in Peter's awe and appreciation, before grinning at his new friends, and smugly said "I _told_ you Gryffindor was the best house!

The three of them resumed their meal and made it their goal to eat all of it, but they found that they couldn't and were left far behind the other first years. "I'm sure it's this way!" James said in an assured voice.

He took them up three flights of stairs and were trapped for about thirty minutes because the stairs wouldn't move. _Who thought moving stairs was a good idea?_ When they finally reached the seventh floor, they were left alone to go and get settled in, "Password." the portrait of a fat lady moaned.

Peter muttered, "Do either of you know the password?"

Sirius looked at James, "Don't look at me." James sputtered.

"But oh, dear James, how can I not look at someone that's almost as dazzling as me?" Sirius grinned in a smooth voice before returning to his natural tone, "But yeah, same here. I don't know."

Just then, the red head was walking toward them talking with the blonde. James stood still so she'd see him; he was very hard to miss. "Excuse me," James said, interrupting her conversation with the other girl.

She looked at him, her red hair long like fire and she had a look of annoyance when she saw them, but nevertheless was polite. James cleared his throat, "I'm sorry to interrupt," _no I'm not,_ "But well, do you know what the password is? My friends and I have seemed to have missed it." he said.

The word _friends_ just fell out of his mouth; he didn't really know enough about them but he couldn't find another appropriate word. The redhead gave him a look that made him want to look down at his feet but he couldn't be pulled away from her hypnotizing green eyes. _Unbelievable,_ _I'm James Potter, and I'm not nervous in front of anyone. I should probably show that though._ James threw his head back, tilting his chin upward and looked at her with a smirk, which always won him likes. She turned her attention from him to the portrait, "Banana Fritters." she said in a matter of fact voice before moving inside, paying him no attention.

He paused, and muttered "Thanks."

She could at least acknowledge his existence! The five of them stepped into the common room and couldn't help but gawk at their surroundings. "Whoa!" the blonde girl gasped.

There was a warm fire flickering. The room had a dark wooden floor and cozy red armchairs, the entire common room had red posters and gold trim to represent their house colors. James looked over to the red headed girl who was smiling and looked at her friend, "This is so…" she stopped mid sentence, clearly speechless at what they were seeing.

Her green eyes were twinkling with the help of the flickering fire and James noticed that she had a lovely smile. He hadn't seen one from her yet; _that had nothing to do with me._ "So…we get to choose our own dorm room?" the blonde girl asked, clearly expecting James to answer her every question.

"That's right." James said excitedly as he _finally_ received the attention from both of the girls.

The red head's gaze at him softened but was pulled away by the squealing blonde girl up the stairs to the girls' dorm rooms. Dang! He had finally gotten her attention and then she just left! James stood there with a frown on his face while Peter tapped his foot impatiently. Sirius just sighed, "Well from where I'm standing I've got to say, I don't think she likes you very much."

"Whatever." James said, "It's not like I care."

 _Yes I do, I care very much._ "What's her name?" Peter said as the three of them climbed up to the stairs to the boys' dormitory to get ready to sleep.

"Bloody hell!" James said as he smacked himself in the face with his hand, "I didn't get her bloody name!"

Sirius laughed, "Well done James!"

They found the hall that had a sign in front that read ' _first year boys_ '. Close to the boys' dormitory entrance, they saw that the first room on the left had three available spots, "But I don't _want_ to sleep so close to the common room!" Sirius whined, "We'll be woken up!"

James looked at the other two, "This is the only one with three empty beds. Would you rather be separated?"

The other two furiously shook their heads and walked into the dimly lit dormitory. Sirius grabbed the bed closest to the door and James grabbed the one next to him, primarily because he had a good view of the quidditch pitches. Peter quickly claimed the bed next to James because it was the only one left as the other one was taken by their other roommate, presumably who was fast asleep. James, Peter and Sirius couldn't see him because their bed curtains were closed. The three unpacked their belongings and stayed up late, which didn't bother their other roommate who slept like a rock.

James clapped his hands together, "So Peter, what do you usually do for your birthday?"

Peter looked at James and smiled, "Well usually my mum makes me a chocolate cake and we open some presents. After that, we'd go to the zoo or something."

"What's a zoo?" he asked, almost laughing at the funny word.

"It's a place that holds wild animals." Peter said fondly, "I love the lions."

James had a brilliant idea, "Well I know where we can start, that is if you two are up to staying out after hours."

Sirius grinned, "I'm in."

Peter pursed his lips before smiling, "Me too!"

James pulled Sirius and Peter out of the Gryffindor Tower, "Let's go."

"Wait!" Peter said as he threw open the lid of his trunk and dug around for a moment until he pulled out a small box with a lens.

"What's that?" Sirius asked.

"A muggle camera! I've got to take pictures now, don't I?" Peter said enthusiastically and hung the cord around his neck. Now let's find the kitchens."

That statement was easier said than done as the three of them got lost, and Peter got all whiny. "Where is it?" he whined.

"Hold on. We'll find it." James said in a determined tone.

"Boy turn that light out." barked a voice, causing the three boys to jump.

They let out a little yelp, "Who said that?" Peter squeaked.

James turned and saw an old man in a portrait, a blue nightcap and grey nightdress adorning his frail and feeble body. His eyes were narrowed at the three of them, "Do you know where the kitchens are?" James asked right away.

"Of course I do." he said in a superior tone, "Underneath the Great Hall."

"Thanks." James said as he and his friends left to find the kitchen.

They went under the great hall, but all there was was an obnoxious painting of a large merry looking woman holding a goblet with a table of pears beside her. "He gave us the wrong directions!" Sirius growled.

James huffed, but Peter chimed in, "No I think this is it. I read a book over the summer, _Hogwarts a History,_ I think. It says that you have to do something to the painting to open the kitchen."

James looked at Peter, mildly impressed, "I didn't take you for the studious sort."

Peter gave him a faint smile, "Well I didn't want to get lost."

It took them a good ten minutes playing with the painting before they finally managed to get in, they had to tickle a pear. The kitchen was very spacious with pots hanging on the ceilings and large ovens taking up half a wall. In the far back was the pantry, "Yes." James said happily, "Alright, let's make a cake."

Sirius raised his eyebrows, "Do you know how to make a cake?"

James scoffed, "Of course."

The three of them ran excitedly into the pantry and grabbed ingredients that looked like they would go into a cake. The three of them guess-timated how much of the ingredients needed to go into the cake. "I think that's enough flour." Sirius said as he attempted to brush flour out of his hair and off his face, but it was just made worse.

Peter slid the cake into the oven while James laughed, "You look like a ghost."

Sirius smiled and threw some flour at James, who couldn't let Sirius get away with that. The three of them threw flour, sugar, eggs and other items at each other while the cake baked in the oven. They were coated head to toe in a thick paste and Peter eagerly took three photos of them, which surprisingly didn't move. Peter had to explain that muggle photographs _don't_ move! They waited while the cake baked or burnt at least. It looked charred when they pulled it out and it had a burning ashy smell. "It looks…" Sirius said before stopping.

"I'm not so sure we should eat this…" Peter said cautiously.

James, taking this as a personal challenge, took a fork and dug into it. It was hot and disgusting, where he immediately spit it out and proceeded to gag. "Ugh." he gacked.

Sirius and Peter laughed at him, and James couldn't help but laugh as well. The three of them abandoned their hideous and tasteless cake and proceeded to go to the next thing James had planned. They scoured the grounds to find the Care of Magical Creatures paddock so Peter could get his zoo experience. It was underwhelming to say the least as all there was in the small paddock was a cage full of pygmy puffs. They all sighed, "I'm sorry Pete." James said.

Peter let out a wide grin, "Don't be! This is the best birthday I've ever had!"

James turned to Peter, baffled that he actually liked it, "You you mean it?"

"Of course, you two celebrated my birthday with me and you just met me! This is great." he said excitedly.

"Next year it'll be better. That's a promise." Sirius said, crossing his heart.

The three of them took the pygmy puffs out of their cage and pet them; James was amused at how soft they were. Peter continued to take photos of the three of them. It only became a problem when the rest of them got free and they were forced to go and catch them. James stood corrected, it became an actual problem when they were caught out after hours by the caretaker, Apollyon Pringle. He was a plump balding man with at least three chins, and was red in the face. "Rotten kids. You're not supposed to be out here, oh wait until your head of house finds out."

He tried to seize them by their hands, but they were too fast. They jumped back as he fell to the ground, and ran away, "Nice to meet you!" Sirius called out, grinning behind him.

They didn't slow down, or at least James and Sirius didn't, until they reached their dorm room. The three of them laughed about their narrow escape while Peter passed around a cheesy snack to everyone as they talked about how excited they were to go to their classes. As it pushed to two in the morning, the three decided to get ready for bed all tired from the day's events, but despite being tired, James couldn't sleep. James couldn't tell whether he was too nervous or too excited for tomorrow, but at least he had two friends to get him through his first school day.


	3. Chapter 3: Peter Pettigrew

DISCLAIMER: This is not mine. The wonderful magical world of Harry Potter belongs to the one and only J.K. Rowling.

WARNING: There is some swearing in this chapter, and there will most likely be some in upcoming chapters as well. I try not to use swear words a lot, but I just wanted to give everyone a heads up.

Peter

Peter woke up and never had he ever been more tired. His birthday celebration had kept him up until 2AM! He groaned as his eyes felt like they were wired shut, which only opened when he saw the time, eight o'clock! Breakfast started thirty minutes ago and the prefects were going to hand out their time tables! He looked around, and neither of his roommates were in a panic. Sirius was in the fetal position looking sound asleep and James was sprawled out on his bed. Peter shot out of his bed and woke the two, "Wake up! Wake up! It's eight in the morning!"

"Ugh, it's eight." James murmured, not bothering to open his eyes, "We can miss breakfast."

"Go back to sleep," Sirius groaned as he turned over to shove his face into his pillow.

"We get our schedules today! Get up now!" he shouted as he noticed their other roommate was already gone.

That woke James up a bit and groaned. He murmured a few words that Peter wouldn't ask him to repeat. James and Peter got dressed, while sweet little Sirius slept soundly. "Sirius, for the love of Merlin, get up now!" James shouted as he pulled on his robe.

A muffled "No," came from Sirius' pillow.

"If I have to be up, _you_ have to be up." James said firmly.

Peter was surprised that James got Sirius up with just his words. He was sure if he had said that, Sirius would've knocked him out and then fallen back asleep. Sirius bitterly shuffled out of bed and the three boys went to the Great Hall for breakfast where they got their schedules. Peter had a perfect English breakfast and a few other things. He grabbed every pastry he could find: scones, muffins, crumpets, etc. James told him to eat his main course first and _then_ eat the pastries, but Peter didn't really listen and ate everything in front of him. He nearly choked when he heard the screeching of the descending owls who threw letters down to each and every one of them. One bird even landed on his plate. "Ugh, disgusting." Peter scoffed in revulsion as he pushed both the owl and his plate away, "I hate birds. They're like rats with wings."

His new friend snickered at his comment, "You have an owl…" James mentioned with an eyebrow raised.

His owl looked like she took offense to his words and ruffled her feathers. "Yeah well, she's different." he commented, looking at her softly and apologetically.

The owls delivered letters from parents, praising their children for their sorting. James opened his letter eagerly, dropping his spoon and letting it sink into his porridge. James was beaming, "I take it your parent's are pleased?" chuckled Peter.

James grinned and looked up at Peter, "Absolutely! Both of them were in Gryffindor, you know? They'll be getting me ' _something special'_ for Christmas this year."

Peter's brown barn owl, Greta, pecked at him until he opened his letter. When he did, she finally flew off to the owlrey. Peter opened his letter eagerly and read it,

 _Peter,_

 _We're so proud of you! I can't believe it–my son–in Gryffindor! You are the first Gryffindor in this family for the several past generations. We were a bit surprised but we are overwhelmingly proud! Well done son! I know you'll make the Pettigrew name a good one and bring honor to the Gryffindor house! Oh we love you so much and we hope you've already made yourself some friends. Happy 11th Birthday!_

 _Love,_

 _Your mother and father_

Peter was beaming, "They're a bit surprised, but they're 'overwhelmingly' proud of me. Apparently I'm the first Gryffindor in generations! My mum's family has always been in Hufflepuff." he said, reporting his letter to his friends.

Peter was surprised he was put into Gryffindor and felt pride swell up into his chest when the hat said his house. He had overheard James say that Gryffindor was the best house and it contained the best people! Peter felt honored to be a part of something great, and even better, to know great people. He'd never tell anyone, especially James and Sirius, that he narrowly escaped being sorted into Slytherin and with Snivellus. The Sorting Hat deliberated for a good five minutes before sorting him into Gryffindor. Its words rang in his head, _"Hm…"_

 _"Have you decided yet?" Peter asked impatiently._

 _"In a hurry are we?" the hat mumbled, "Slytherin is very fitting,"_

 _"No. Not Slytherin. Anything but Slytherin." Peter said hastily, praying that he'd escape the snake house._

 _"No? I think its fitting. You want to ally yourself with the right people, but that's not all of what you value…that's interesting. You value daring, outspokenness, bravery, confidence. I wonder…Alright, better be…GRYFFINDOR!"_

Peter might not have possessed those traits himself, even he would admit that, but given time he could. Peter had a gift for determining who the cool people were, and he certainly was right when he determined it would be Sirius Black and James Potter. Sticking with them would surely help him live up to the Gryffindor values. His attention was distracted by the loud angry female voice emitting from Sirius' letter, "HOW DARE YOU DEFILE THE NAME OF BLACK WITH YOUR SORTING? YOU STUPID CHILD! YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE PUNISHMENT WHEN YOU RETURN HOME YOU SELFISH BOY! YOU'RE AN EMBARRASSMENT. IF YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE TO BRING SHAME UPON OUR FAMILY, I WILL MAKE YOU REGRET BEING BORN!"

The sound of ripping paper, came from Sirius who was tearing apart his letter as he shook and looked like he had tears in his eyes. Peter could have sworn that he saw sadistic smiles and sneers directed at Sirius from a few older Slytherins, a particularly vicious one coming from an older blonde haired girl. The entire hall went temporarily silent. "Are you okay mate?" James asked.

Sirius magically made his tears disappear and returned his attention to his friends. His confidence and arrogance quickly returned and he shifted the conversation quickly. "Nasty old hag." he said with distaste, "I'm fine. I got what I wanted: she's livid and I'm in Gryffindor. Hey, it looks like we got Charms first with Fillius Flitwick."

Peter looked at his own time table, "And we have potions with a, _Slughorn?_ Odd name."

"That's an unusual name." James chuckled as he noticed the hall returning to its busy sound.

"Oh yeah, old Sluggy and I go way back. He was there at my heir sealing, and gave me a Slytherin themed onesie." Sirius said with a wrinkled nose before laughing, "He looked absolutely constipated when I was sorted into Gryffindor! He's taught my whole family!"

"Ah yes, the cringe inducing, nutter, pureblood family." James teased.

"Our name puts fear and revulsion into those who hear it." Sirius smirked, "Still a better name than Horace Slughorn though. It's very…odd."

"Odd? This is coming from the kid who is named after a _dog._ " Peter snorted.

"Excuse you, but that _dog_ is a star, the brightest star mind you _and_ the constellation was named after _me._ " Sirius said, pointing his nose up to look superior.

Peter smiled and shook his head. Sirius returned his attention to their schedule and focused in on the name, "Slughorn, hmm…I know a curse that can make someone vomit slugs."

"We can't curse the teacher, we'll be thrown out." Peter said concerned that Sirius was already thinking of something so dark and mischievous.

"It's an idea, I never said we would use it on a _teacher_. We'd use it on someone else, like Snivellus." Sirius said deviously.

James smiled, and looked at Sirius curiously "Could you actually do it?"

"I think so, we should try it out." Sirius said happily.

Peter thought that the situation escalated quickly. Nevertheless, he decided to go along with what they wanted to do. At the table, the three of them started talking excitedly about how they would do it. They recited the curse without actually performing it, and decided they should practice before to make sure it works. Peter gasped suddenly, startling Sirius and James, causing them to drop their wands. "It's ten o'clock! We're fifteen minutes late, we've got to go."

Peter noticed that neither James nor Sirius looked particularly concerned but seeing that he was in a fit, they got up. Neither were in a rush, "They're not going to punish us first years. All we have to say is that we're new and the stairs got us lost. Come on, we'll be okay." James reasoned.

Peter wasn't quite sure but followed their lead. It wasn't a lie, the staircase wouldn't move for ten minutes to take them to where they needed to go or at least where they _thought_ they needed to go. James took them all over the castle, but soon realized they had no idea where they were or where they were going, James muttered to them feeling their uneasiness, "I know what I'm doing."

Sirius looked at Peter, "No he doesn't."

Potter looked back with a scowl, "Hey I'm trying, better than what you two are doing." he turned back and said, "I was sure this was the way."

Sirius caught up with Potter, "We should just skip class, we're already late. We can tour the castle."

Peter looked appalled, "But this is our first day!"

But James mouth broke out into a wide grin, and clearly pretended he didn't hear Peter's words or at least he didn't care to listen. "You're right, we should take this time to figure out our surroundings. I mean, that's what a _responsible_ student would do, know where everything is."

"Exactly!" said Sirius.

Peter gave them a worried glance, "Are–are you sure?"

"Of course we're sure." James said firmly.

Sirius and James eyed him expectantly, waiting for him to agree and Peter, despite his better judgement, decided to tag along with them. They were cool people and he liked being in their company. They were funny, good looking and confident, and Peter knew that the first few weeks of a budding friendship was crucial for it to stay a friendship. They walked around aimlessly, and neither James nor Sirius seemed to care where they were going. As they turned a corner, a boy ran into them in a panic. The boy was small and pale and in a great amount of distress; it was the boy he invited to sit by him last night after his sorting. He pushed his mousy brown hair out of his eyes and was in a sweat, no doubt by the heavy sweater he was wearing underneath his robes. His eyes were tearing up. James stopped in his tracks, "Whoa, are you okay?"

"I'm late for class and I'm lost! I can't, can't," he said wheezing.

"What do you have?" James asked even though he clearly had no idea where anything was.

The boy let out a light whimper, "I have-have Charms, with Flitwick."

James smiled, "So do we." he looked back at Sirius and Peter, "We'll help you look."

The boy breathed a huge sigh of relief, "Thank you so much!"

Peter didn't know what James was getting at; was this all some sort of joke on the poor bloke? James had no idea where they were headed. Despite this Peter remained quiet and watched as James stuck out his hand, "I'm James. James Potter. Gryffindor."

The boy smiled, "I'm in Gryffindor too," he said as he pointed to the crest on his robe, "I'm Remus Lupin."

"Hi Remus," James said, as he withdrew his hand from their handshake.

"I'm Peter." Peter said merrily, making his presence and identity known.

Peter was by no means as impressive or important as James and Sirius; James' father created a famous and very successful hair potion and Sirius came from the Noble and Most Ancient of House of Black. From what he heard from his mum and from what Sirius told him, the Black's were the wizarding world's equivalent to royalty! And Sirius was the heir. Reminding himself of Sirius, he turned around to see him eyeing Remus curiously before smiling kindly, "What's your name?" Remus asked, as he pushed his hair out of his face.

"Sirius." Sirius said as he flashed his white smile.

"Yes I'm serious. What's your name?" Remus asked, earning a cocky smile and snicker from James.

"It's Sirius. My name is actually Sirius, like the constellation. S-I-R-I-U-S." Sirius spelled out, "The star was named after me."

The boy didn't look like he'd appreciate being teased. "You were named after the star mate." James laughed.

"That's what they want you to think…" Sirius grinned.

Remus looked at Sirius skeptically, "You're not pulling my leg?"

"No he's not." Peter announced excitedly, "He _really_ is named after the brightest star in the sky!"

Sirius lifted his chin and puffed out his chest from Peter's praise. James rolled his eyes, "Yes yes, Sirius is magnificent and all that but there's no need to stroke his feathers."

Remus smiled and joined them on their walk. "What dorm are you in?" Peter asked excitedly.

"Dorm 102. It's the closest to the door." Remus said in a pant.

"So are we!" the three of them exclaimed.

The other boy was beaming in excitement about how they were all roommates. They hadn't see him the night before because he'd gone to bed early and had drawn the curtains, although Peter did see him from the sorting. "Sorry if we were being loud." Peter apologized.

"No worries. I sleep like a rock." Remus said, looking over to Peter.

"Yeah you do." Sirius agreed, "I honestly thought you were dead because you didn't wake up to our own little party."

Peter found that he liked Remus very much, which may have had to do with the fact that Remus handed out chocolates to the three of them. Remus was a very good listener, he trailed next to Sirius and eventually caught on to their charade, "You don't know where the class actually is, do you?" Remus frowned slightly.

James smirked, "We've been trying to find it ourselves."

"Honestly. They should give first years a map." Sirius said in an exasperated tone.

"How can they blame _us_ when we don't know where anything is?" Peter said loudly in a tired voice.

Remus nodded in agreement and smiled cautiously, "Very irresponsible of them."

Class would be over in five minutes so the boys decided to give up and try to find their next class just when the bell rang. Students poured out of the charms classroom. "Found it!" screamed Sirius.

Peter let out a little cheer. "It's not _that_ exciting," James said in an impatient tone.

Out trailed the students that they paid no notice to, until he saw the red head walking out, and sure enough, she had caught James attention. She turned her head and yelled, "Are you coming Severus?"

"I'm just grabbing my books Lily. Please wait." he pleaded.

Lily waited for the boy who had called to her and turned to face Potter staring at her. She looked disapprovingly at them, but decided to focus her attention on a book. Peter believed that she wasn't really reading for academic purposes or for pleasure, but rather because she was avoiding them. Her long red hair draped around her face, acting like a protective curtain for her to hide behind. James leaned back on the wall in an effort to look casual and cool. In a bored and a ' _I'm too good for anything'_ voice, James asked, "So…what happened in class?"

"You would've known if you had come." she said quietly, not tearing her eyes off her book.

"We got lost. Can't blame us." he said, taking himself off the wall in order to grab her attention.

"No. They should've given us a map." she said quietly as she finally turned her attention from her book to James, "I nearly fell off those bloody moving stairs."

"Same thing happened to us. Look I think we got off on the wrong foot. I'm James Potter." James said and extended his hand to her.

"Lily Evans," she said as she stuck out her hand to shake James'.

Peter saw James smile; both Lily and James were equally attractive. Lily wasn't one to hold grudges, and seemed to let go what happened earlier. "And I'm Sirius." Sirius chimed in uninvited.

Lily looked at him curiously, "You don't _look_ serious."

"No, I'm _Sirius,_ S-I-R-I-U-S _,_ like the dog star." Sirius elaborated.

"Woof." Peter barked.

James rolled his eyes in annoyance and turned the conversation back to normal, "So…what do you think of it here?" he asked confidently.

Lily smiled and clapped her book shut. She spoke with a large amount of enthusiasm, "It's _amazing_! I can't believe I'm here, I'd have never thought…it's…there are no words."

James smiled wider as she talked excitedly, "The castle is so big! I've been waiting to come here forever."

"Have you known long? That you're a wizard?" she asked, pushing her red hair out of the way.

"All my life." he said proudly, "You?"

She shook her head, "I found out just recently."

"You're a muggleborn then?" he asked curiously.

"Yes. Does that matter?" she asked cautiously.

"Not at all. I think it's cool. What's it like? I've always wanted to know." he asked, making no effort to hide his eagerness.

As she opened her mouth to speak, their pleasant conversation was interrupted when Snivellus ran up to her and scowled at them, "Are they bothering you Lily?"

"The only one who is bothering anybody is _you,_ Snivellus." Sirius mocked, finally deeming the greasy boy _Snivellus,_ "Go wash your hair!"

Lily immediately withdrew her kindness and scoffed in disgust. Severus became more hostile, "It's Severus and I'll show you you arrogant…"

"Severus they're not worth it." Lily said strongly, tucking her book under her arm. Severus scowled at James and James scowled at Snivellus. A short man who appeared to be part goblin came up behind them, wearing green robes, "Are you having trouble finding your next class children?" he said smiling.

Scowls were thrown around, until Remus chirped in and diffused the tension, "Uh yes actually. Can you tell us where the Greenhouse for Herbology is? The castle is confusing."

"Ah yes, the Greenhouse is directly behind the castle. You can go right down this corridor and take the stairs to the court yard, or you can go left and take the stairs down into the grand entrance and circle around to the back past a small hut. The greenhouses are tucked away into the corner. That path is more time consuming. Can you find it alright?"

"I believe so," said Remus in a squeaky voice.

Flitwick smiled and turned to face Sirius, James and Peter. "It is to my knowledge that all first year Gryffindor's have me for their first period yet I was missing the four of you," he said softly.

Remus quickly explained in a panic, "Professor, we got lost. The castle it's…"

"I know, I'm only messing with you. It is a big castle so I will not take away any points from Gryffindor today. That would be unfair to Miss Evans who earned five house points in my class today, she was exceptional."

Lily looked exceedingly relieved and more than a little proud, "Thank you professor." she smiled as she tucked another strand of red hair behind her ear.

"I expect all of you there on Friday otherwise I will have no choice but to discipline you."

They all nodded and Flitwick gestured for them to go off to class. Once he was gone, Remus said in a matter of fact tone, "Alright, let's take the short way."

Lily looked at the four of them with disgust, primarily James Potter. _Those green eyes aren't too pretty right now_ , _in fact, they're slightly terrifying,_ thought Peter. She stood closer to Severus. "We'll take the short way." she said coldly and left.

Remus looked upset, "So does that mean we have to take long way?"

James narrowed his eyes as the pair rounded the corner, "I don't want to walk with _Snivellus_ anyway." he said, his tone filled with distaste.

"Can you imagine walking with him? We'd probably slip from all of the grease that's dripping from his hair." Peter wrinkled his nose.

"That's disgusting Peter." Sirius said, though he didn't contest his point.

"Ugh, we're going to be late _again_." Remus complained.

Sirius and Peter suggested just ditching, since they were going to be late but decided to go due to Remus and James insistance.

Peter and Sirius purposefully walked slow, much to James' and Remus' annoyance. "Can't you two walk any faster?" groaned James.

"Sorry that climbing six flights of stairs and running around the castle made me tired…" Peter falsely apologized.

Clearly, none of the other boys had any trouble with physical activity. Sirius quickly rejoined James' right hand side with seemingly no effort, whereas Peter continued to trail behind them. James seemed to sense Peter's frustration and generously slowed down his pace for him, which Remus and Sirius did also. "We have time." Remus said reassuringly with a smile, "I'm so fucking excited to start classes!"

Peter's eyes widened at Remus' language, but both James and Sirius smirked at the boy's foul mouth. He looked as innocent as a newborn babe, so hearing the word ' _fuck_ ' come out of his mouth was both surprising and amusing. "Are you a muggleborn?" Sirius asked, tilting his head curiously.

Remus shook his head, "No, I'm just really excited that's all…would it matter?" he asked, regarding his blood status.

"Not at all," Sirius smiled, eyeing Remus up and down like he were an interesting toy.

"I'm a half-blood." Peter said proudly, which made Remus smile.

"So am I." Remus said timidly.

James looked excited at this information, "So you grew up with a muggle? That's so cool! What's it like? I bet you know loads about it, don't you?"

"Actually, I don't know a lot about it to be honest. My mum, who is a muggle, has lived in our world since she married my dad. She doesn't talk about it much, she just encourages magic…" Remus said slowly.

James looked disappointed at this information before quickly switching to Peter, looking more hopeful. "Same." Peter said flatly and in a disappointed tone.

Peter wished he knew more about muggle culture, since James seemed interested in it. Keeping James and Sirius interested in him wasn't Peter's top priority, since they had the attention span of a golden retriever and thought the most interesting topic to talk about was themselves. Still, it would've been nice to share something that James would like.

James pouted, "I think they're very interesting; how they survive without magic and all that." he confessed.

Sirius nodded in agreement, "The way they get around is cool too! They have those cool carts!"

"You mean cars?" Remus asked, raising an eyebrow as he brushed his hair out of the way.

Sirius' face burst with excitement, "That's it! Cars!" he shouted before breathing deeply, "Oh I wish I could fly one…" he said dreamily.

"They don't fly Sirius." Peter said honestly.

Sirius looked both disappointed and confused, "Then how do they get places?"

"They drive." Remus clarified.

"Drive?" Sirius asked, puzzled.

This was something muggle related Peter knew about! _Why didn't I think about this before?_ His dad was a car salesman and owned a fast red car. Peter and Remus spent the rest of their brief walk to Herbology discussing how cars worked and what driving meant. Peter and Remus looked at each other merrily when they saw how happy and excited their new _friends_ were, the only word that Peter could think of to describe Sirius and James.


	4. Chapter 4: Remus Lupin

DISCLAIMER: This is not mine. The wonderful magical world of Harry Potter belongs to the one and only J.K. Rowling.

WARNING: There is some swearing in this chapter, and there will most likely be some in upcoming chapters as well. I try not to use swear words a lot, but I just wanted to give everyone a heads up.

Remus

The three boys went to class with him, even though it was obvious they didn't want to be there. They made it to Herbology right on time, but right on time (in Remus' opinion) meant late. They ended up having to seat themselves in the back, because all of the seats at the front were taken. He huffed, but didn't pay much mind to it since he was in his _first magical class_! Sure, it was a little bit boring early in the beginning with Professor Sprout's lecturing, but that was to be expected on the first day of school. Remus enjoyed just being there and the company of James, Sirius and Peter.

When they _finally_ got to something useful in her lecture, James and Sirius zoned out. They instead, found Remus' knowledge of muggle transportation too interesting to pay attention to their herbology lecture. Remus sighed, since he knew he wouldn't be able to focus if Sirius and James kept asking him questions, nevertheless he answered them because he had finally found someone else he could talk to. He'd never really interacted with other children before due to his…condition. _Now is_ not _the time to think about that._

He returned his attention to James, who was clearly pleased that Remus' eyes were on him. Sirius' grey eyes focused in on Remus, they looked like they were constantly amused, something Remus hadn't seen before. He realized they were expecting him to answer their questions, not that he minded in the slightest when he saw how horrified Sirius and James looked when he began to describe planes.

"But then _how_ do they travel to other countries?" James asked in a hushed tone.

"They fly." Remus whispered back.

"But they don't use brooms…" Sirius stated with a puzzled look.

"No, they use _planes_." Remus whispered back, briefly returning his eyes to the board that Sprout was writing on.

He put down his quill, _It looks like_ _I'm not going to get any work done,_ and explained the complexity of planes or what he knew of from the books he had read. "So let me get this straight. They put themselves in a heavy metal container to fly miles across the ocean where they could just fall out of the sky and plunge to their certain deaths?" Sirius sputtered, eyes wide in disbelief and in slight horror.

Remus nodded at James' and Sirius' pale faces. They looked like brothers. "Well they have to manage to get across the world in _some_ way, don't they?"

"But, in a heavy metal container of death?" James asked, his mouth hanging open.

"Why do I hear talking back there?" snapped Professor Sprout, her eyes narrowing in on the boys.

Remus was about to open his mouth to apologize, but James decided to speak. Remus would soon learn that that was not entirely a good thing. "Because you have ears." James said with a smirk while his eyes glittered with snark (if that were at all possible).

On one hand, Remus disapproved of James backtalk but thought highly of how quickly he was able to come up with a retort. Unfortunately, Sprout didn't share his sentiment."I don't allow talking while I'm teaching." she said sternly, "Five points each from Gryffindor." Sprout said loudly and resumed her lesson.

Remus heart sank. His first day and he had already lost house points, when he should've been earning them to prove that he belonged at Hogwarts! Well he didn't really, _you're just a monster, they'll drop you if they find out or worse…._ He looked at the other boys sadly, but they didn't seem to mind. Remus sighed when class was dismissed and they walked out to lunch. He sat, staring at his split pea soup in saddness, "Oh come on Remus, it was just twenty points." James said, clearly not making a big deal of this.

"Just twenty points? We've already set Gryffindor up for failure. We'll lose if we keep this up." he said in an exasperated tone.

"Well with that attitude we will." James said, "Look, it's easy to make them up. Don't stress over it or you'll go grey."

"Or do, because I think you could pull off grey," smirked Sirius with twinkling eyes.

Remus smiled at that, and all stress over the point loss had been forgotten. The four of them gorged themselves on their sandwiches and soups, "This is the best day of my life!" Peter said with a mouth full.

All nodded in agreement. Remus swallowed, "I'm just disappointed that we missed charms. Charms is a very interesting subject." he said.

"I agree, but I'm most excited for transfiguration! That sounds fun!" James said enthusiastically, "And quidditch of course. Flying class comes first I suppose, but it's not like I need it when I'm a natural flyer."

James face was irritatingly smug, but it vanished when he suddenly focused in on something, someone, else. "Her name is Lily." James said staring at Lily who was eating with Snape in the corner. "What does she see in him that makes her want to be his friend? I mean, he's kind of lame."

"Gross, rude, weird, loser, greasy…" Sirius began, counting on his fingers, "And that's just my nice list."

"I take it you don't like Severus, do you?" Remus murmured as he took another bite of his sandwich.

"No." the three boys said in unison.

Remus had gotten that impression from their first exchange. "Why?" he asked.

"Why?" Sirius asked loudly, "You've seen him!"

"He's a greasy grease ball who is rude and makes snide comments about others." James said, his hair standing up a little more.

"You make snide comments too," Remus pointed out, though he wished he hadn't.

"Don't you dare compare his snide comments to my wit. I'm cleverer than he is." James said, not with much anger though.

Still, Remus immediately apologized, "I'm sorry. You're right, you are."

James leaned back with a smug look, "Why thank you Remus."

"And now that you're our friend, you have to dislike him too." Sirius said in a matter of fact tone, before giving Remus a smile.

"I'm y-your friend?" Remus stuttered, eyes wide in disbelief, "But you've only just met me!"

"Yeah, but we're a good judge of character and you seem like a good bloke." James grinned.

Remus blushed, "Oh thank you. You seem great too."

Their proclamation of friendship was childish, something you'd find on a playground with five year olds but Remus was making no complaints. Though, he didn't like disliking anybody even Snape. Snape had to have some good qualities to be friends with someone like Lily Evans. She seemed sweet and caring and only harsh when provoked. Perhaps he might be able to sway their opinion on Snape later on.

As they ate lunch, Sirius brought up hexing Severus with a slug charm, and Remus was instantly against it but Sirius had determination that he had never seen before. Still, he didn't push it and didn't dare speak out in fear of losing his newfound friends. Playground friendships, which is what he deemed theirs to be, were fragile in the beginning and he wasn't about to lose it. Remus worried if he spoke out, that the other boys' would no longer want to speak with him and Remus had seven years to go with these three as roommates, _if I last that long_.

James leaned towards them eagerly, "You'll never guess what I got my hands on?" he asked knowingly.

Sirius' eyes twinkled in anticipation, and Peter was almost drooling over the suspense. Remus knew this wasn't going to end well, but couldn't help but be a little curious, "What'd you get?" he asked.

James pulled out two boxes, "Zonko's finest dungbombs." he said as he pushed it towards his friends.

"Where'd you get those?" Remus asked with a worried creased brow as he chewed his food.

"I spent my allowance on them, not that my parents know about that." James said with a mischievous glint in his eye.

"Are you shitting me? It's our _first_ day of school and we've already lost twenty points, and you think this is a good idea?" Remus asked in an exasperated tone. _Shit! I just denied an idea of James! They'll drop me now!_

But his comment didn't seem to phase James at all. "Oh come on, it'll be funny. I didn't use my hard earned money on these just to not use them. Besides, I think you're forgetting the five points we earned in charms…" he explained.

"We weren't even there and Lily Evans earned those." Peter corrected.

" _Gryffindor_ earned those points." James smiled.

Quick to regain James' favor, Remus let out a faint smile and quiet humour, "Sure take credit."

Peter returned to the subject at hand and asked eagerly, "What are you going to do with them?"

"That's obvious, isn't it?" Sirius looked at his friend with a twinkle of mischief in his eyes, "Set them off on Snivels?" he asked hopefully.

James shook his head, "These things aren't just going to little o'l Snivels, no no." he said as he looked over at the Slytherin's dining table, "They're going to them."

"All of them?" Peter asked with savage eagerness.

"It's only sweet justice after their jeering at Sirius yesterday following his sorting." James said before turning to Sirius with a smile, "You want to?"

Sirius' grey eyes lit up, as if lightening were cracking before a storm. "Hell yeah I want to," he said as he took on a dreamy look, "Oh my cousin Narcissa reeking of dung. This is going to be the best present ever."

Remus sighed and resigned himself to letting them do what they want. It'd be no use to stop them now and how could he? Sirius looked so happy and after that howler he heard at breakfast this morning, he couldn't deny him this small simple pleasure."How bad will it stink?"

"There we are!" James laughed, clapping Remus on the back causing him to wince, "Oh it'll be pretty bad; we won't smell it though if that's what you're asking."

Remus knew he'd be more sensitive to the smell, or at least the wolf would be. One of the downsides of being a werewolf was the enhanced senses; it was animally and primal. Remus chewed on his sandwich, "And _how_ do you plan to get it over there?"

James shrugged at Remus, "I was just going to throw them over."

Sirius didn't see a problem with this, and neither did Peter. "You'll get caught. You should try something else." Remus said smartly _._

James waved the last part of Remus' sentence off, "Oh you could roll them over!" Peter said excitedly.

"Excellent idea Peter!" Sirius said excitedly, "Here, let me do it."

Sirius and James both grabbed one of the dung bombs and rolled it across the floor which ended up under the Slytherin table. Remus, although he felt guilty, couldn't tear his eyes away. A loud _pop_ sounded from the left side of the Great Hall and saw the Slytherins shriek, wrinkle their nose and jump off their seats in disgust. One of them, the Slytherin prefect Lucius Malfoy, accidentally stepped on the box which spurted out a brown thick liquid onto his face and robes. The smell was repulsive and it assaulted Remus' nose aggressively, but he couldn't find it in himself to care as much. The blonde girl, who Sirius had been paying the most attention to, shrieked and began to cry. "My robes! Look at this Lucius, it'll stain!"

The four of them couldn't help but laugh at this; Remus laughed a little too loud."There you have it, you enjoyed it as much as the rest of us." laughed Sirius, whose eyes centered on Remus.

"Fine," Remus laughed, "Fucking guilty as sin."

Suddenly Sirius stopped laughing and turned to James, "While we're on a roll, we can do it this weekend."

"Do what?" Remus asked, tears of laughter in his eyes from watching a swearing prefect and Sirius' shrieking cousin.

"You know…the hex." Sirius smiled.

Remus blinked in surprise, "You want to do what?"

"Why not now?" Peter asked eagerly.

Sirius replied rather quickly, "It's too soon now. It'll imply our guilt. We just used James' prank."

"I don't think we should do this." Remus said.

"You were just okay with us throwing dung bombs at them." James pointed out.

"Yeah well, they had it coming. They were mean to Sirius." Remus said a tad too defensively.

"Snivellus is really _mean._ You should've met him on the train," James scoffed, "Trust me, it'll put a stop to him bothering us in the future."

"Or it could encourage him to antagonize us." Remus reasoned.

James looked at Remus, "Well, anything is worth trying once, but if it really makes you uncomfortable then you don't have to do it with us."

Remus' heart dropped, he'd just made friends and now he'd lose them in a span of a second. Remus should have never said anything and shook his head, "Well, I should be there to make things run smoothly, so I guess I'll join you."

James smiled, clearly pleased that Remus would join them. _This is wrong, it'll get you expelled. You're violating Dumbledore's trust and proving what kind of beast you are!_ But the look of delight on James' face broke Remus out of his negative thoughts and somewhat soothed him.

Sirius looked at Remus with reassurance in his eyes, and a gentleness that he couldn't quite place, "It won't be for a while. We've got to do it at the right time. Besides, I'd prefer to wait a bit to make sure we've got some practice waving our wands."

James scoffed, "But spells are easy! Watch." he pointed his wand at an unlit candle, "Lumos!"

The candle did a high rise fire that grabbed everyone's attention where Remus proceeded to put it out quickly, "Aguamenti!". No teachers have seemed to notice and Sirius's grey eyes focused on Remus and held awe, "Wow! That's a year six spell! Where did you learn that?"

Remus blushed, "My dad can't cook and usually catches the stove on fire so he has to put it out a lot. I guess I kind of picked up on it."

"You're a bloody genius Remus!" exclaimed Peter.

"Remus the Genius…" James snickered.

"You too. Nice one James," said Sirius whereas Peter over enthusiastically clapped and cheered over his performance of the lumos charm.

Remus didn't have the heart to tell him that that wasn't what the spell was for or what it was supposed to do. _They'll find out in charms...if we ever go to it._ They went to their Transfiguration class with Professor McGonagall which was a little less exciting than he thought it was, but McGonagall said they needed to know the basics to do it properly. They learned about the alphabet and the formula, which they would go over at another time. She promised they would do something more advanced later, which Remus was fine with as he scribbled down her notes from the board. Remus noticed that Sirius did his best to lean back into his chair, tipping it to the point where he almost went crashing down if it weren't for James catching the chair with his arm at the last moment and easing it back down, but there was a loud clunk that distracted everyone momentarily. McGonagall glanced back at them, peering over her half moon glass where James and Sirius put on an innocent face. She shook her head and tried to resume teaching.

James and Sirius made a name for themselves when they talked a little too loudly in class, earning a reprimand from McGonagall. Why they decided to continue on, Remus had no idea. Professor McGonagall seemed to have no tolerance for mischief or riff raff. Sadly this impression of her did little to deter them from their conversation as they just wrote it out on a piece of parchment. When she caught on to their conversation, she grabbed the parchment harshly, "Didn't I tell you two to stop speaking while I was speaking?" she asked, peering down at James and Sirius behind her glasses.

"Yes you did. And we listened." Sirius said with a polite grin, with no genuine politeness behind it.

"We stopped speaking Professor. We just so happened to carry on our conversation on a piece of parchment." James said in a humorous tone that Remus found funny, unlike McGonagall. The pair were clever in their rule breaking.

McGonagall was unamused, "Then perhaps you'd like to carry on your conversation outside of the classroom." she said plainly, "I won't have students disrupting my class." she said as she eyed the door.

This earned nervous looks from their classmates and the entire room tensed up, but Sirius and James seemed to be fairly relaxed and acted cavalier about being thrown out of their first transfiguration class. As they gathered their books to leave, the bell rang, signaling the end of class and rendering her punishment useless, "Come on Sirius, let's carry on our conversation outside." James said slyly.

"The three of you, stay behind." she said sternly.

"Should've known." James said.

Remus looked at them curiously, _why three? What did Peter do?_ Sirius, James and Peter nodded at Remus to go along, "We'll be right back."

Remus couldn't help but give in to his curiosity. He might hate being a werewolf, but he could appreciate the enhanced hearing his lycanthropy gave him. Although he was much too tired as the moon was approaching, he could still hear the words ' _pygmy puff_ ', ' _flour everywhere!', 'baking_ ', and ' _fifteen points'_ that came out in a harsh tone, giving him the assumption that they hadn't earned any house points. The three of them caught up with him as he stood by the door, "What happened?"

"We had a little party for Peter yesterday. It was his birthday and McGonagall didn't like how we celebrated." Sirius explained.

"Oh. Happy Birthday." Remus said kindly and gave Peter another chocolate who accepted it graciously.

"You lose _one_ pygmy puff and suddenly you're on her naughty list." James scoffed before smiling.

Remus let out a small laugh and followed the three out of the classroom. Perhaps being friends with troublemakers wasn't the _best_ idea, but they were funny and clever and it couldn't hurt him too much. Rather than James complaining about another impending class, he practically sprint to their next one, which was flying class. "Come on!" he yelled enthusiastically as he was bouncing at the end of the hall, waiting for the others to catch up.

Remus had the sneaking suspicion that he'd never be late to flying class if James had anything to say about it. Remus didn't like heights, and he was certain he wouldn't like flying, but alas he had to learn it. When they reached the training grounds, James pulled out his own broomstick that he had brought with him. This wasn't forbidden but it wasn't exactly encouraged either. James showed off his broom, which was the newest model. Muggleborns whispered excitedly and half-bloods and purebloods showed their approval. "It's the fastest model yet!" exclaimed a Ravenclaw first year.

"Aren't they limited edition?" a Gryffindor boy, Mason Cuttinghall, asked.

James nodded, "Yeah _and_ they're being ordered by the world quidditch teams, since it is the best broom there is."

Remus noticed that even Miss Lily Evans looked intrigued, but she didn't dare approach them and give James the satisfaction, not that he would notice as he was soaking up all of the attention. James insisted that he had "no choice" but to ride his broom and to show others how it is done. Thankfully he was as good as he said he was, and did not make a fool of himself. Remus wasn't sure if he could handle the second hand embarrassment if James had failed after bragging so much. "Mr. Potter, stop showing off!" ordered the flying instructor.

James quickly landed and took a spot next to Sirius when the instructor order them into two lines. James, 'out of the kindness of his heart', showed them how to summon their brooms. The entire class managed to summon them and made them hover real quick that James _swore_ was thanks to him. "I'm going to be a professional quidditch player when I grow up. I plan to try out for the team as soon as I'm able." James said with a puffed out chest.

"What position would you like to be?" Remus asked curiously, tilting his head to the side

"I'd like to be a chaser," James said in an excited voice, bouncing up and down, "I've been practicing all summer."

Not everyone had the skill James did though, and a poor Ravenclaw girl who managed to get no less than ten feet in the air, fell down and broke her arm. Madame Hooch ran over to the girl and carefully helped her up, "Oh there there, it's okay Ms. O'Brian." she said in a kind voice before looking at the rest of the class sternly, "I'm going to go take her to the hospital wing. No one and I mean _no one_ will fly their brooms while I am gone. Practice _only_ summoning and nothing else."

She walked swiftly away with O'Brian, which was the dumbest thing Remus thought a teacher could do. _Of course it's a good idea to leave thirty eleven year olds with newly ignited curiosity and poor impulse control alone with a broom. Nothing will go wrong!_ So of course, James took it upon himself to further demonstrate his exceptional flying skills on his own broom. James rode on the newest and best model broom proudly, the _Zimbar 2000._ Now that he was riding it, Remus could get a better look. It was a dark brown wood and had a curved seat that had enough padding to make the rider comfortable. James was having fun showing off, especially to Peter who didn't hide his excitement. Peter, with the rest of the class, cheered James on as he flew higher and higher.

Peter's excitement confused Remus, it was as if Peter had never seen a broom before and being a half-blood, he surely had. It was his twirling which earned a lot of laughs from the rest of the students. "Potter get down here!" screeched Lily Evans.

"Or you could come up here." he laughed, "Why look up to me when you can be on my level?"

She sputtered in indignation, which caused Remus to smile a tad. No one else shared Remus or Lily's concerns. The more praise James received, the bigger his head got. His head must've gotten too big and heavy, because James suddenly lost focus and his broom zipped from underneath him and shot into the bottom windows of the castle making a loud _thunk_. Sirius laughed at James' fall whereas Remus helped him up, "Did that hurt?" Remus asked in an unconcerned voice.

"No." scoffed James who rubbed his bottom, which obviously looked like it was in pain.

He thankfully landed within a manner of a minute before Madame Hooch returned, and no one said a thing. If they had had class with the Slytherins, they probably would have had no such luck. Class was dismissed and James threw his broom over his shoulder and brushed back his wind swept hair as the four of them walked down the hall. "That was fun." James grinned.

"You're so lucky Potter. If Hooch had gotten there a minute earlier or we had class with Slytherins, you would've been kicked out faster than you could say the word quaffle." Remus lectured.

"Speaking of quidditch, I've got to say, before you fell, you looked like you actually had a chance at being a chaser." laughed Sirius.

James scoffed and pointed his nose up, "I've got more of a chance of being a chaser than Snivels has of being popular."

"Wow, you're setting the bar so high." Remus said quietly, which earned him loud laughs from the three boys.

James' laugh was a leading laugh, a laugh that made others laugh and laugh hard. Sirius' had a dramatic bark like over the top laugh, which was very amusing and endearing to Remus. This was the best day Remus ever had, but then it hit. His legs felt weak and so did his arms, his stomach got sick. He needed to lie down, he didn't expect it to hit until Saturday, it was only Thursday. He had four days, this day was perfect and then it was ruined. _Stupid wolf_! They reached the part where they could either go to Gryffindor tower or the Great Hall, he chose to go to sleep.

"Are you okay Remus?" Sirius asked, his face dropping from enjoyment to worry.

"I'm fine." Remus said smiling over the muscle pain.

Sirius, James and Peter looked him up and down. "We can skip dinner," James offered and Sirius piped in, "We can go back with you and have one of us take some food at night. It'd be no problem."

Remus shook his head, "I'm fine, really. Thank you."

He hated lying to them, he finally found three potential friends or at least they would be until they found out what he was. He kept it quiet and asked to go back to the common room for some alone time, the others complied and went to dinner. Surely they'd talk about him, probably drop him as a friend because he had dismissed them and was a stick in the mud. He ran upstairs and shakily did his homework, blinking away tears. He looked over at their stuff, he had been so lucky to be able to share a living space with them. _It's for the best. They deserve a better friend than a monster like you._ He left the room and ran into Horace Slughorn, "Hello Remus."

"Hello Professor." Remus squeaked.

"Professor Dumbledore would like to speak with you."

A million thoughts raced through Remus' mind, _he going to expel me. He changed his mind. I should have gotten to class sooner. I never should've let them let go of those dungbombs. What did I say?_ He approached Dumbledore's office and went inside, "Professor?" Remus squeaked, afraid.

Professor Dumbledore smiled and looked at small little Remus behind his moon shaped glasses. "How is Hogwarts treating you? Are you enjoying your classes? Are you making friends?"

"Yes sir." Remus said timidly.

"I've asked you to come regarding the arrangements I have made for your transformation." Dumbledore said.

He explained that Remus would go away to a small house where he could transform once a month and then resume his studies and everyday life. He'd back up whatever story Remus came up with. Dumbledore gave him a tonic from Madame Pomfrey, "It's the most effective in the days' prior to the full moon but becomes less so as it approaches."

Remus gratefully took it. Remus was relieved that he wasn't being kicked out, and returned happy yet still sore, but he felt immensely guilty. He saw the boys and greeted them merrily, they asked him what was wrong and he told them he had to visit his ill mother this weekend. "Is there anything we can do?" asked James.

He never heard James be more genuine and replied that he would be alright. "Are you sure? My mum was a healer and my dad's a potions master! He could whip her up something to help."

"This—this isn't something—-that can be helped. It'll be fine though, we're used to it." he said solemnly.

"It's too bad you won't be here this weekend. We were going to prank Snivellus." Sirius said disappointed.

Remus didn't feel too bad that he would have to miss that, although he regretted not being able to talk them out of it. "That's okay, you can do it by yourself even though…" he said cautiously.

"Even though you'd prefer we not do it." James said in an 'I know, I know' tone.

"But you still will…" Remus said in a resigned tone, "And it'll give you a chance to do some magic."

Remus felt a little better that his friends weekend would not be ruined. It was hard. They hung around and talked. James talked about how he had a thousand ideas to prank Snape and the Slytherins, while Sirius added his 'genius' to improve them. Peter had gone out later and brought back snacks, it was obvious nothing academic would get done but that was okay with Remus. Remus ate most of the chocolate whereas Sirius and James took most of the sweet and sour candies. Remus didn't pay attention to what Peter was eating because it was all gone. Even if this wouldn't last forever, he had never been happier.


	5. Chapter 5: James Potter

DISCLAIMER: This is not mine. The wonderful magical world of Harry Potter belongs to the one and only J.K. Rowling.

WARNING: There is some swearing in this chapter, and there will most likely be some in upcoming chapters as well. I try not to use swear words a lot, but I just wanted to give everyone a heads up.

James

Apparently McGonagall was not done with them and their 'shenanigans' that James, Peter and Sirius had performed on 1 September. The three of them were forced to clean up the Hufflepuff kitchen and apologize to the House Elves. Apparently, they left flour tracks around the castle and the teachers quickly deduced that it was them. Remus kindly accompanied them in the kitchen and helped them clean up. "It's already clean. I don't really see a point." Sirius said as he scrubbed the ovens without magic.

"No one appreciates friendship anymore." James said in a firm voice as he put away a copper pot.

Sirius' eyes glittered, "You know what they say, true friendship starts with your first joint detention."

"I don't think they say that." Remus noted as he studied from his book, _Standard Book of Spells Grade 1_.

"Well they should." James said in a firm voice and looked at Remus curiously. "Why are you reading that thing? You're brilliant."

Remus blushed, "I'm really not. I just pick up on things pretty quickly… I also want to get a head start on this as well."

"You don't give yourself enough credit Remus." James said with a smile.

Remus gave a shy smile and returned his eyes to his book. Just then, James noticed the deep dark circles under his eyes and his skin looked a little paler too, "But perhaps you should put that down," he began slowly, "You look a little off color."

Remus' entire demeanor changed. He suddenly tensed up and looked over at James nervously, "I always look like this. Bad genes." he said quickly with a point of finality to end the conversation.

"Can't be as bad as mine." Sirius said as he continued to scrub the oven, "My parents are cousins."

"That's so gross." Peter said, his voice laced with disgust.

"Yeah. Toujours Pur. I don't get why the 'keeping the bloodline pure' thing excuses inbreeding for them." Sirius responded.

"I don't get the 'keeping the bloodline pure' thing in general." James mentioned, "But now that we're on the subject, do you have an extra finger or something?"

"James!" Remus scolded, causing James to drop his pot, "You can't just ask him if he has an extra appendage!"

"But do you?" asked Peter, earning an approving nod from James.

"No I don't. The only thing that's 'odd' about me is how unbelievably gorgeous I am." he said, his voice dripping with confidence and arrogance.

As James was about to respond and bring Sirius down to size, the four of them were startled by a clank and a scratch as the portrait door swung open, and none of them were expecting who stepped inside: Lily Evans and two other girls. "Oh, why are you here?" the small blonde girl asked.

She had blonde curls that bounced as she moved, "Oh, we just thought we'd help out…" Sirius grinned.

"Why are _you_ here?" James asked curiously.

"Oh just strolling around…" Lily said carelessly.

"Really?" Peter asked, his eyes all squinty.

"No. We're here because our friend is feeling faint and we needed to grab a snack." she said, pulling her red hair back into a lazy ponytail.

"Well you're going to have to make a snack yourself…they don't really have any treats here." Peter said lazily.

"Oh please. I've seen you four stick chocolate in your pockets. I know it's here somewhere." she said impatiently.

"My mum sends me some, enough for me and my _friends_." Remus said, stressing the last word with cheer.

"Oh." Lily said sadly, "Well could we have some? My friend, Emmeline, she's feeling very faint."

"She's upstairs resting," a girl with black curly hair and beautiful dark skin noted.

She was very pretty. Remus gave her some of his chocolate, but James, determined to make Lily like him, decided to abandon their cleaning and make a sandwich for her friend. "What are you doing?" Remus asked.

"I'm making Emily a sandwich." he said as he looked through the cupboards.

"It's Emmeline," the girl with black curls corrected.

Remus, Peter and Sirius abandoned their work and made sandwiches which the girls' decided to help with. Making one sandwich would probably have been enough to feed Emmeline, but they made more after setting up an assembly line. The seven of them abandoned their mess in the kitchen and returned to Gryffindor Tower. Lily, to James' delight, seemed to be grateful for his actions. "Thank you." Lily said as she carried the sandwiches up to her dormitory, "Come on Dorcas."

James watched her leave, thinking of her fondly, when he realized his new friends were snickering at him. "What's so funny?" he asked.

"Oh nothing." Sirius teased, "I just think that it's rather nice of you to do this for Miss Evans."

"Yes, what a display of chivalry." Peter said, matching Sirius' tone.

"I did it for her friend." James said plainly.

"Of course you did James." Remus teased, making no effort to hide a smirk.

The four of them hung out in the common room eating their sandwiches, "I think it's a fact that a sandwich tastes better when made by someone else." Peter said as he chomped down on his ham and cheese sandwich.

"I agree." Remus said, "In fact, I think I've read that somewhere."

Sirius and James nodded in unison, "Of course you have." They didn't want to go to dinner since they were so full and they soon wished they hadn't as McGonagall pulled them aside. "How is it that you made the kitchens a bigger mess while cleaning it?"

"Ma'am, there was an emergency. A friend of a friend…" James began before being interrupted.

"I wouldn't exactly call the friend of the friend a friend. I don't think she likes you very much." Peter said honestly.

James glared at him, "You're wrong."

The three of them shrugged, "Well, in any case, a friend of a somewhat friendly person to us—,"

"A friend of an acquaintance would be more accurate," Remus corrected.

"FINE! A friend of an acquaintance was feeling faint and we made her a sandwich." James explained in an impatient tone.

Their chivalry and explanation went unrewarded and the four of them (since Remus distracted them) were forced to clean up both the kitchen and the Great Hall after dinner. It was a long night, which was made longer by the Hogwarts Poltergeist Peeves, who ran and dumped soil from the greenhouses on to the floors. James learned new words courtesy of Remus Lupin who chewed out Peeves, but Peeves didn't seem to care. At least the whole thing made Friday come faster.

Classes had gone by rather quickly on Friday. By then the boys' had drawn up a reputation of pranksters or in McGonagall's terms "troublemakers". Well, 'trouble' is what McGonagall said, but that couldn't be further from the truth! All of their 'pranks' happened to stem from the curiosity that needed to be sated in an instant. Their questions couldn't wait until morning. It started with a simple question from Sirius, "But do you think the fireplaces in the offices can be used as a floo?"

"No. I've read _Hogwarts: A History_ and floo travel is impossible here." Peter said in a superior tone, or at least he tried to.

Remus countered, "No, it says that one cannot apparate or disapparate from or to Hogwarts, it says nothing about the floo."

"An open floo network could lead to intruders though." Peter said as he rolled over onto his bed.

"And as you know, a floo network can be within a building while being unconnected from the outside world." Remus said in a smart voice.

"It's true. My uncle Alphard's house is so big that he has a floo network for each floor. I loved to play tag in it with my brother and him." Sirius said in a voice filled with nostalgia.

"There you have it." Remus said in a smug tone.

"Oh come on! Do you think the teachers are that lazy that they'd use a floo instead of use the stairs?" James said in a demanding tone.

"You mean the stairs that will strand you in the middle of nowhere for a half hour?" Remus asked.

James was silent; he hated being proven wrong but nothing was proven, was it? "Well, there's only one way to find out for sure." Remus declared.

"Remus Lupin! Are _you_ suggesting that we sneak out after hours?!" Sirius asked in an impressed tone.

It was much too dangerous of course to try the floo out themselves, so they stuck Peter's banshee alarm clock in and sent it to another floor. They spent the next half hour running through the halls searching for the loud screeching sound while trying not to get caught. Fifteen minutes was devoted to trying to unlock the potions classroom door, which is where the alarm clock ended up being. The truly heart jumping thing about the experience was that the caretaker almost caught them that night, but Peeves helped them out. He valiantly grabbed the ringing alarm clock and threw it at the caretaker while the boys made their dashing escape.

They almost got away with it, if it weren't for Peter putting his name on the back of the banshee clock! The exchange between them and McGonagall did not go well. "How'd you know it was us?" asked James, refusing to admit to their excursion just yet.

 _Play it cool, she has no proof. Come on, you're good at this and your friends will back you up. Just remain calm and poised._ "Perhaps it was because the clock read ' _Property of Peter Pettigrew'."_ she said as she held up the clock with his name scribbled on it.

Sirius, Remus and James glared at him, "Really? You put your name on it?" Remus asked annoyed.

"Sorry. It's a force of habit," Peter explained, "I was always told to put my name on everything."

"You have trouble putting your name on the top right hand corner of our homework, and _this_ is the time you actually put your name on something?" Remus asked angrily.

"I don't know what you're talking about. All of my assignments that are handed back have my name on it." Peter said plainly.

The four of them briefly ignored McGonagall's presence, "I wrote it in for you mate." Remus said dryly.

"Oh." Peter pouted before speaking in his own defense, "You know, you can't totally blame me. Peeves was the one who took it and threw it at Pringle. If he hadn't, then no one would have found out."

"I bet he knew that too." growled Sirius.

McGonagall sighed, "Gentlemen please focus. You were out _after_ hours and caused a disruption while your fellow students were sleeping. Furthermore, you broke into the classrooms and had the poltergeist throw something at our caretaker."

"He did it! Not us." James said defensively.

"Fifty points from Gryffindor." she said with no remorse as the boys exclaimed their frustration, " _And_ you will be you'll be cleaning and sanitizing the floor around the Slytherin table. Don't think I don't know what you did with those dung bombs. At dinner time, if it not clean, you will share Gryffindor table with them."

The four of them groaned, "Why?" they whined.

"You ruined their table and I expect you to be hospitable." she said and bid them goodbye.

"Well, we'll definitely put the word 'hospital' in hospitality." laughed Sirius.

The four of them cleaned up the Slytherin table after their classes let out. While everyone got to have fun before dinner, they were forced to clean it up. "This is awful." James said.

Peter's nose crinkled, "It stinks."

"I honestly thought we wouldn't get caught." Sirius complained.

"I should've foreseen this." Remus said sadly as he scrubbed dung off the table leg.

Remus' eyes looked at James suspiciously, "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Just unscrewing the prefect seat." James said as he used his wand to loosen the nail.

"Are you serious?" Remus asked loudly, throwing his rag down in annoyance

"No I am." Sirius snickered.

"Look, Lucius Malfoy is a stink head. He deserves this." James said firmly.

"Well in that case, can you do the same to Narcissa's seat? She's usually right next to him, since they're engaged and all." Sirius explained, his voice lined with contempt.

"Engaged?" Remus asked, all wide eyed, "She's fifteen and he's seventeen!"

"Like I said, keeping the bloodline pure. They're to be married after she graduates. Ugh, I don't want to be related to Malfoy." he said as if this was the most normal thing in the world.

James obeyed Sirius' command to prank her. Instead of loosening the screws on Narcissa's seat, he placed a sticking charm on it so she couldn't move. Eventually dinner arrived and luckily, none of the Slytherin's had to sit with them since all of their work was done. Narcissa Malfoy had to be cut out of her seat, leaving traces of her fine robes and skirt on the bench. Malfoy cursed when he fell through his seat, but no one could prove it was the four of them. "It's completely circumstantial." James said defensively when McGonagall asked them of their guilt.

"In all honesty professor, he deserved it for swearing in front of us _innocent_ first years." Sirius said.

Remus made a choking sound when Sirius said ' _innocent_ '. "You're completely right. I do not need that type of language in my vocabulary." James said, acting concerned.

"It hurt my ears professor!" Peter said.

McGonagall had no choice but to let them off. The four of them walked off, quite proud that they had gotten away with, "I can't believe we lied to her and didn't get caught." Peter beamed.

"We didn't lie to her completely. I did learn a few new words from Malfoy." Sirius snickered.

"You did?" Remus asked.

"I grew up with a family practically stuck in the Victorian times. No one swore, well except for my Uncle Alphard but I don't get to see him a lot." Sirius said.

James nodded, "Yeah and both my parent's are pretty old, neither of them swearing or at least I think they don't. Besides you're one to talk; I've heard some of the things that come out of your mouth." he said, pointing at Remus.

Remus, out of the four of them, swore the most and did it in a way that made it seem like it was a language all in its own. They learned a lot from him. "I think I've learned more from you than I have from Malfoy." Sirius smirked, the candle flames flickering in his grey eyes.

Remus blushed in embarrassment and looked away in shame, "I-I'm so sorry…"

"Don't be! Teach us the ways of the potty mouth _Professor Lupin!_ " Sirius said dramatically.

"Okay then. First rule, never say the term 'potty mouth' again. It's rather pathetic," Remus laughed, "And at least your experience with me is educational."

It wasn't until they reached their room where the lighting was better that James noticed how ill Remus looked. There were dark circles under his eyes, he winced when moving, and he was paler than normal. Sirius insisted that they practice for the slug spell later that night. James offered to postpone their hex (he had hoped they would) but Remus would have none of it. "We won't do it then." Sirius said defiantly.

"You have to. Don't let me ruin your fun." he said in a sad voice, looking ashamed.

"Remus, you aren't ruining our fun." James said reassuringly, putting his hand on Remus' shoulder.

"Look, I'd actually rather not be here to see it. It's best if you do it without me." he said, glancing up at James.

"We can't do it without you! You're a genius! Remus the Genius." he exclaimed.

He could've sworn he heard Remus growl, "Oh Merlin! Come up with a different nickname!"

"Why? I like it." Sirius said in a matter of fact tone as he leaned against the bed post.

Remus smiled, and eyed Sirius "Unless you want me to hex you into tomorrow then I suggest you come up with something else."

James grinned, "I bet you could too. I'd love to see that."

"Traitor." Sirius said and stuck out his tongue towards James.

James and the other boys went to bed early, mostly out of consideration for Remus and how ill he looked. James would have to write to his father and ask him if there was anything he could do to make Remus more comfortable, even though it was Remus' mother who was ill. Their weekend was put on a rough start when they woke up to find Remus had gone off to see his mother. The boys put their plan into action and saw Severus by himself, sitting under a tree reading a potions book. "Hello Snivellus." Sirius teased.

Snivellus just glared at them. "You reading about potions?" prodded Sirius, "Can you find one to clean your slimy greasy hair?"

"Can you find one to make you intelligent?" he let out a sneer.

"Wow, what a lame comeback. What can you expect from a slug huh?" mocked Peter.

James grinned and saw Severus shift and become uneasy, he pointed his wand, "Slugulus Erecto!" James bellowed.

Severus was on his knees throwing up slugs, "What's wrong Snivellus? Slug got your tongue?" James laughed with the others joining in.

James would later reflect back on his words and cringe at their silliness and non-creativity, but for now they laughed. Suddenly James was yanked back by his collar and spun around to face an angry Lily Evans, her green eyes were no longer sparkling but fiery with anger. "What is your problem?!" she screeched, "Why are you picking on him?"

Sirius and Peter stood by James who was still face to face with an angry redhead. "Because he's a menace Evans! He's rude and vile."

She laughed, "You're the only menace here. Losing house points, wandering out after hours and picking on _innocent_ students. You think you're so great with your stupid broom but you are not."

"I knew you were admiring my broom." James smiled, which was a very dumb idea on his part.

Just then, Sirius was knocked down with the knockback jinx. James managed to yank himself out of Lily's grip and turn his wand to Snivels who stood looking sick, but angry enough to fight. "You'll pay for that you slimy—," he began before Lily stood in his way.

"No! Stop it! Leave us alone!" she said, her voice slightly breaking, "You've done your damage and he's done his. Let it go."

James made a move to go past her, but he received a hard punch to his left eye that had a force that sent him crippling to the ground. He stumbled and fell onto Pete and Sirius as Lily grabbed Snivels, who was still throwing up slugs, and left in a hurry. James had trouble opening his eye, but he didn't need it to see that she clearly didn't regret hitting him. She had a mean fist. "Clearly the girl has no taste in friends." Sirius jabbed as he finally got up and extended his hand to James.

"No, but she can hit hard." James said as he rubbed his eye while taking Sirius' hand.

"I can't believe you got hit by a girl," Peter pouted, looking disappointed that James had taken a hit from Lily.

James glared at him in disapproval, which made Peter shrink a bit. James had no problem with being hit by a girl, he had a problem with not being allowed to have the last word, especially when it was stolen by a friend of Snivels. Evans and he were supposed to have witty banter, but Snivels got in the way. He always did, but then again she was no saint either since she hung around a sneaky Slytherin. If it weren't for Evans, Snivels never would have won as James assumed Snape had no talent of his own. All fondness for the girl left, though the interest still remained, and James vowed never to care about her again. He didn't need her prissy, goodie goodie attitude anyways.

The feeling was clearly mutual. Evans didn't even acknowledge their existence when they went into the common room and would dart into her dormitory to avoid them. She wrinkled her nose every time she saw them, acting as if a large supply of dungbombs had been released. After being released from a chat with the headmaster about the incident, he went into his dorm and saw that Sirius's bed post sitting there had the curtains closed, which they never were. Out of curiosity, James opened the curtains to reveal a red eyed Sirius. "Hey mate." James said.

Sirius didn't respond and James felt that he didn't want to talk, but he thought to himself he better make sure. "You okay?"

Sirius was surrounded by torn up paper, making a mess of his bed. Sirius was uncharacteristically silent for a while but finally spoke to James when James climbed into Sirius' bed. "I don't want to go home James." he said letting out a small sob, "They hate me, they are mad that I'm not a Slytherin."

"That's not true," James said sitting beside Sirius.

"They sent me a howler saying so." he said in a pained tone.

Sirius didn't talk about his family much and James only heard about them in passing, just that they were all in Slytherin and that Sirius had a younger brother whose name James forgot. He hadn't heard much about them since Sirius received his howler following their sorting. Apparently Sirius' first detention opened up a slowly healing scab that was in their family. "Malfoy and Narcissa told them everything in a letter home. Rotten pair they are." he croaked, "Naturally, I'll be in for it. The trouble with Malfoy and Narcissa is just the icing on the cake compared to the sorting."

"Surely your parents won't be _that_ mad about you not being in Slytherin." James said, inching closer to Sirius.

"I'm from the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. A house who has never been in anything _but_ Slytherin. To top it all off, I'm the heir!" he said loudly, "Ugh, I thought I'd be free here and get to do what I want, but it's never that way. I don't get to do what I want, I have to do what is expected of me."

"You don't **have** to do anything you don't want to do." James said in a comforting manner, "Okay. Screw them."

"You haven't met them, and I hope you never have to, because they're awful. Just like me…" he said, looking down at his hands.

"You are not awful. Why would you say that?" James asked.

"Because I am…" he said quietly, "I'm a disappointment, an embarrassment and a shameful heir."

"Do you remember what I said on the train? The day we met. Remember what I said about Gryffindor?" he asked, nudging Sirius.

Sirius nodded, but still looked down at his hands. "That it's the best." he whispered.

"Right! And who gets sorted into Gryffindor?" he prodded.

"The best of the best." he said, a little more cheer coming into his voice.

"Correct. Last question: what is the criteria to be the friend of James Potter?" he asked in a snobby tone.

"You have to be the coolest, most awesome, loyal, best at everything, smart person ever!" he said brightly.

"Correct! Ten points to Gryffindor!" James yelled as he jumped off of Sirius' bed and pulled Sirius up with him.

Sirius pushed his hair back and grinned, "Thanks James."

"No problem. Now let's go do something fun!" he said brightly.

As they left their room, James told Sirius that he could come over during Christmas break and gave him a vial of floo powder to use in case things ever got to bad. With Remus gone, they spent a short while being productive, though others would disagree with their methods. "It's a simple teleportation spell that I made up." James said casually, "The quaffle goes in one hoop and then it comes out from the other one on the other side of the field."

"You say it's simple, but it's not." Peter said shaking his head.

"Why are you being so negative Pete?" Sirius asked, clearly annoyed by the slower boy.

"Look, it's going to work. Sirius, you go up and throw the quaffle through the hoop on the left side of the field and I'll be at the one at the right end to catch it." James said, tossing Sirius the quaffle that they nicked from the supply closet.

Sirius nodded, mounted his broom and took off to the left end. He threw the quarrel through the hoop, _I hope he'll try out for the quidditch team with me. I think he and I would be unstoppable._ Just then, Sirius flew higher and higher letting the wind take him away, hurling Sirius off. Thank Merlin, James hadn't moved too far yet and was able to zoom and catch Sirius in a nick of time.

James heard sniggering coming from below him and saw Snivels, with his wand out, with the Slytherin quidditch team. James suspected Snivels used a hurling hex, trying to throw Sirius off the broom and do some major damage. James decided he'd deal with it later as saving Sirius was his first priority. "I've got you!" shouted James.

Sirius was flailing around, which was not helping with the Slytherins. "Don't let me go!"

"I'm not going to!" he shouted, "Can you pull yourself up?"

Sirius tried, but it almost sent both of them crashing down. "No. Go lower and then drop me!" Sirius said in a panic.

James carefully descended, but his hand was getting tired and the weight of Sirius was pulling his broom down too fast. They were going to crash and die! _Come on James, slow it down. You can do it!_ Using all of his strength, he kept a hold on Sirius and maintained stability on his broom before releasing Sirius who was hovering five feet above the ground. "Oof!" Sirius whined as he landed safely.

Peter clapped and cheered with wide eyes. He pointed to the end of the field, "Look! The quaffle went through!"

James and Sirius both smiled before Sirius turned to Peter, "It's nice to know that you were so concerned about me."

"I wasn't worried. I knew James could do it." he said brightly, making James blush.

"All in a day's work." James said with a wide grin.

"It's work for him to be cool. Me? Not so much…" Sirius said cockily.

James turned to him with a dead pan expression, "I'm sorry, who just saved your ass because you couldn't fly properly?" James said, bringing Sirius back down to his size.

"That wasn't _me._ That was slimy little Snivellus." Sirius said, turning to see a snickering Snape with his Slytherin posse.

"You aren't supposed to be flying for recreation." said a deep slithery voice, "Detention for the three of you." hissed a boy.

James and his friends turned around to see a tall boy in green robes with long pale blonde hair and grey eyes. Lucius Malfoy. He had a pointed snobbish face. "You can't do that!" sputtered Peter, "You're just a student."

The boy looked rather pleased with Peter's response and grimaced , "Why yes I can. Do you know what this ' _P'_ stands for?" he asked eagerly.

"Prat?" answered Sirius.

"Pinhead?" bantered James.

"Putrid?" Sirius snickered, "By the way, did you manage to get all of that dung out of your robes _Malfoy_?"

The boy's eyes narrowed and he sneered, "It stands for _prefect_ you idiots, which means I can give each of _you_ detention. Tomorrow night, five o'clock."

"You don't understand," Peter pleaded, "Snape was using a hurling hex, he tried to kill Sirius."

"Another week of detention for slandering Mr. Snape who is clearly the brighter and better student than the three of you." the boy hissed, "Such a disappointment…" he threw a glare at Sirius.

The tall boy strode off and joined the group of Slytherins who were laughing at this point. Sirius sneered, "I hate him."

After they got the quaffle on the broom they went back to the common room where James vowed himself to never like Lucius Malfoy. _It's not like that will be hard._ They went back to their common room to plot, especially Sirius. "I can't wait to see what you guys do next." said Peter, in James' opinion, too eagerly.

"It has to be good. I almost died!" Sirius said loudly.

Lily came in, "You almost died?" Lily asked, her eyebrow raised. Lily's anger she harbored towards the boys' turned into concern, "Are you alright?" she asked genuinely.

Sirius acted like a wounded puppy, ready to soak up Lily's concern but James wouldn't have any of it. He had already promised himself to dislike her. "Yeah no thanks to your _friend_ ," James hissed, "Snivellus used a hurling hex on Sirius."

Lily's mouth opened, "Don't call him that! And he would _never_! You're just paranoid, and you should be considering what you did. That was really mean." she said harshly.

"Mean?" James said angrily and looked towards Sirius, "In some people's eyes, maybe but what he did was _evil_! He used dark magic. What kind of person does that?"

" _You_! With your little…slug hex! That's dark magic too!" she said nastily, "And I'd watch it if you don't want another punch." Lily said as she collided her right fist with her left hand that made James flinch.

Lily marched up to her dormitory. James huffed and leaned against an armchair, "You think she'll chew him out?" Sirius asked.

Sirius folded his arms. "Perhaps, but she's like one of those mums who think their children can do no wrong. Think they're angels and turn a blind eye." Sirius said bitterly.

"Well in that case, I wouldn't want her to be the mother of _my_ children. Those types of mums are the worst." James huffed.

"I thought your mum was like that." Sirius prodded.

"Oh she is, but she won't stand for dark magic or people getting hurt. I can break a vase, but not someone's bone. There's a line." James said defensively, "Now, how are we going to get back at Snivels?"

* * *

Author's Note: Thank you, everyone, for your positive comments! It really warms my heart. Sorry for some of the cheesy lines in there. I just couldn't help myself :)


	6. Chapter 6: Sirius Black

A/N:First off, thank you to everyone who has left a review! I'm so thankful for all of the positivity. I have written the entire 28 chapter fanfic already, and have finished year 2 and year 3 (working on year 4) but I'm having it beta'd/edited then posted. I have found out that it takes a lot of time to do so. As for the question, when will Lily and James become friends? I don't plan for Lily and James to become friends for a while, but eventually they will merely tolerate each other. Lily and Remus are more likely to develop a friendship faster than James and Lily; James is just too immature right now and with Sirius? Sirius, Peter and Remus are James priority at the moment. There will be 8 volumes: 1-7 are the Hogwarts years and the last is the First Wizarding War. Second, I'm sorry this has taken so long. My computer had to be fixed, and although I have everything on file, I didn't want to risk bringing it out of the country with me. This isn't my favorite chapter, but I think it's important.

Lastly, the chapters won't be in the order they start. So a Remus chapter might be before Peter or a Peter chapter will be where a James chapter is supposed to be. There might be two James chapters in a row. Okay enough of my blabbing :)

 **DISCLAIMER: This is not mine. The wonderful magical world of Harry Potter belongs to the one and only J.K. Rowling.**

Sirius

Following their spat with Evans and Sirius' _near death experience,_ they spent the rest of the night deliberating on what they should do to Snape. _The little serpent tried to kill me! Did we antagonize Snivellus? A person could say that, but that person better shut up because_ I'm _the victim!_ Sirius was seething with rage, and the flames were further fueled by James and Peter who agreed with him. "This can't be _just_ a hex. It has to be clever and funny." James said, pacing in front of Peter and Sirius like a general would for his troops.

"Can we prank Lucius Malfoy too? He's just as much of a prat as Snivels is." Sirius said viciously, his heart beating fast from rage before ranting on who else deserved a prank, "And Lucas Avery, Evan Rosier, and Simon Mulciber. Merlin I hate them!"

Sirius had to have play dates with Avery, Rosier and Mulciber as a child, _well a younger child,_ and he hated them! They would always pick on poor Regulus, and their encounters with Sirius grew sour when they would happen to find themselves bald after a seemingly uneventful dinner. "What about your cousin? Should we prank her too?" Peter asked, his small watery eyes demonstrating savage eagerness.

"Why stop there? Let's go with the entire Slytherin house!" James said optimistically.

 _"_ You know, I'm getting pretty hand with those sticking charms…" Sirius started.

"Only because we haven't gone to charms class yet." Peter brought up, before being silenced with Sirius' stormy glare.

James looked at him, "Go on Sirius. What were you thinking?"

"I guess one of the pros of being force-fed Slytherin house ideals from a young age, is that I know _exactly_ how to get into their common room." he said, with a savage grin.

On Sunday, before their detention with Slughorn ( _they really had impeccable timing_ ), they snuck into the Slytherin common room while everyone was at breakfast. "We've got to act fast!" Sirius said in a panicked tone.

The plan was perfect. All they had to do was charm the ceiling with a large sticking charm and then levitate the objects onto it. Being raised in an all magical household could come in handy, and thankfully Sirius and James were able to execute the hover charm perfectly. The common room was done in a jiffy, so they ambitiously started on the boys dormitories. It didn't take as long as they thought it would, and were going to do the girls' dormitories but there was a charm that prohibited from letting boys in.

It was executed perfectly and they had hours to spare before they went to detention with Slughorn, the potions master and head of Slytherin house. Detention with him wasn't so bad, and it had absolutely _nothing_ to do with the fact that Sirius was the heir to the House of Black and James' father was famous. Sluggy was cheerful and offered them tea, "Now I'm just going to have you go through these books and sort out which ones are in working condition and which ones aren't. I want them in two separate piles."

It wasn't too bad and they were allowed to talk to each other. "So how are you boys enjoying your first few weeks at Hogwarts?" he said as he sipped his tea, sticking out his plump finger.

"It's been exciting!" Peter said eagerly who, in his excitement, spilled his tea onto a set of the 'good' books.

"Peter!" hissed Sirius whose tone made Peter's ears turn red.

Peter profusely apologized, "Don't worry Mr. Pettigrew," laughed Slughorn who dried the books off with a wave of his wand, "This is a handy spell when you're a potions professor. Things spill all of the time."

Slughorn smiled, "You know, I am quite surprised how much trouble you got into in such a short period of time."

It was going well until Slughorn brought up Sirius' family. _Just great._ "You know I have to say that I was quite disappointed that you weren't in my house Mr. Black, I've had your entire family. I've been expecting you since you were born, you know? The heir! I was worried whether or not I would get all of the Black sisters with Andromeda being how she is. Such a clever girl, such a pleasure to have her in my house. I'm glad you're in Gryffindor, but I do admit that I would've liked the whole set." he said in a disappointed tone.

Sirius looked down, focusing on his work, "That's why I'm the white sheep of the family." Sirius said quietly which earned a hearty laugh from Slughorn.

"Oh Sirius," Slughorn began to laugh, "You've always had an excellent sense of humor. He's one of the first in his family to make me laugh; he started as a young lad. Does your brother share your sense of humor? I'd be glad to have such an amusing boy in my house, seeing as how I can't have you."

"Regulus isn't known for his sense of humor." Sirius said bluntly, but Slughorn wasn't paying attention to his tone.

"No. I thought not. Regulus is a quiet lad, always has been. Not much of a mischief maker, very well behaved." Ol' Sluggy commented.

 _That's why he's the favorite. Precious, precious, perfect Regulus._ The three escaped detention early much to Sirius' relief, but their weekend had escaped them. Monday morning came too soon, the three of them didn't want to go to breakfast and wanted to just sleep but Peter insisted. "Why can't we just ditch charms? We already know the hover charm, sticking charm and lumos charm." James complained, stirring his muesli slowly.

"Because Flitwick said we would get in trouble the next time we missed. And I know you two are good at it, but I _really_ need to practice. All I could do in the common room was watch you two do the work…" Peter said sadly.

"You cheered us on. That was useful." James said reassuringly.

Peter smiled widely, he loved James praise which annoyed Sirius a tad. It was already clear that he chose James as his favorite. _Whatever._ Sirius couldn't bring it in himself to care. The three trudged back to their dorm room, and Sirius thought that perhaps they could talk Peter out of it. _He doesn't seem like the motivated type_. "The sticking charm is a year four charm, so don't worry about it. And all we'd be learning today is _Lumos Solem,_ which is just a variation of the lumos charm. It'd be stupid to go."

"Maybe for _you,_ but I'm bad at it." Peter said the last part quietly.

"Then by all means, _you_ can go but I'm staying here to get some shut eye. All of that strenuous labor yesterday, it really took its toll." he said dramatically.

Peter quieted down as Sirius knew he would. He was more or less a tag along, and would usually follow what James and Sirius would do. James smirked at Sirius, and Sirius knew he would take his side. James almost always had the final say in the matter. "Your absolutely right. It would just be a waste," he said before turning to Peter, _here it comes_ , and as they entered the room declared his answer, "But Remus is gone and we should go to take notes for him."

"I'm honored that you are using me as an excuse to go to class." croaked a smaller voice.

Standing by his trunk was Remus. Sirius gasped in excitement before seeing the state his friend was in: pale with dark circles under his eyes, and what appeared to be thick bandages under his shirt. "Oh Merlin! Remus what happened? You look like shit!" Sirius exclaimed, hurrying over to his friend.

"Gee thanks." he said as Sirius got closer to him, "I honestly expected a warmer welcome."

"Oh Remus, what happened?" asked James, a horrified expression on his face.

"You really do look like crap..." said Peter softly.

"What? Is this shit on Remus day?" Remus snapped, before softening his look and voice, "If you must know, which I know you must. My appendix burst while I was at home and I had to be taken to a _muggle_ hospital which made the recovery process a lot harder. I practically had to beg my parents to come back, insisting that the right thing to do would be seeing Madame Pomfrey."

Remus looked at them skeptically before Sirius enveloped him in a hug, "I'm glad you're okay." he said, pulling away quickly before Remus had the chance to wrap his own arms around him.

James and Peter stood there, unsure of what to do since 'hugging' wasn't something boys were normally supposed to do with each other. Remus cleared his throat, "Well yes, thank you."

"How's your mum?" Peter asked awkwardly.

Remus looked at him confused for a moment, "My mum? Why would something be wrong with my mum?"

"Because you went home to see her..." James said in an obvious tone.

Remus went wide eyed, "Oh right! Of course, well um, she's better I suppose." he shifted awkwardly, "Let's just drop it."

James out of concern, "Would you like to pass on class today? We'd stay with you."

Remus chuckled, "I think you already planned to cut class today mate."

James gave a weak smile, "You're not wrong, but you still look a little shitty. Are you sure?"

"I don't want to miss anything..." he said slowly, "But if it's what you want to do."

"Well it's what _Sirius_ wants to do." Peter said barely above a whisper, but Sirius still gave him a sharp glare.

"We'd be learning about Lumos Solem and I know that you already know it, so it seems a waste to go." Sirius said in his most convincing tone as he turned up his nose snobbishly.

"You're right. I have and quite frankly I could do with some extra rest." he said in a matter of fact tone, "Sorry Peter, but don't worry I'll help you out."

Peter brightened a bit. _Thank Merlin! No class!_ Sirius launched himself onto his own bed and folded his arms behind his head, as he listened to the conversation carry on. Remus had apparently noticed James black eye, which he had made no effort to hide. "I take it your encounter with Evans and Snape didn't go well?"

Sirius laughed, and rolled off his bed to give his critical feedback: "Evans gave Potter a nice present, don't you think? Girl's got a mean punch."

Peter joined in, "She really told him off, but Sirius shouldn't talk. Snivellus launched him backwards with a knockback jinx."

Remus sighed, "Of course he did. Snape is smart, you should give him more credit."

James rolled his eyes, "The prank went over well, that's what matters, but then Snape tried to kill Sirius." he said defensively.

"Yeah, and then _Lucius Malfoy_ gave us detention for it!" Sirius exclaimed, making Remus wince.

"But we got them back! We pranked the entire Slytherin common room and the boys' dormitories as well." Peter said proudly, "We used the hovering and sticking charm. It was brilliant!"

Remus smiled, "You mastered a year four spell? That's amazing!"

James and Sirius puffed out their chests proudly, before James frowned. "I can't go out like this," he said as he gestured to his black eye, "Can you fix it Remus? I'd prefer not to tell Madame Pomfrey _how_ I got a black eye."

Remus nodded but before he pulled out his wand, Sirius leapt up. If time with his family had taught him anything, it was healing spells to clear up bruises. Granted he'd never performed any on his own, but he had it performed on him several times and well, how hard could it be? "Stay still," said Sirius.

Before James had any time to object, Sirius had taken out his wand and said with a chuckle, "Episkey."

"No, that's not the spell!" Remus shrieked.

James nose felt hot and then cold and then hot again. Remus gasped, "James!"

Sirius had a look of pure fright and then bust out into laughter. James ran to a mirror, his nose had grown larger. It looked worse than it did before, "Black!" James screamed.

He surely couldn't go to class now, "Bloody hell!" Remus said examining it.

Sirius laughed harder, because the situation was all too funny. James looked ridiculous. "Episkey doesn't do bruises Sirius!" shrieked remus who ran over to James who was complaining that he'd forever be disfigured.

It took twelve minutes for them to coax James out of the dormitory, through the common room and halls to get to the hospital three made their way to Madame Pomfrey with James looking down the entire way, hoping no one noticed his face. "What if it's permanent?" he said worried, feeling his nose.

Sirius who was smiling said "If it is, it'll make snogging Evans more difficult."

James pushed Sirius who was still smiling. It was clearly obvious, even though James declared otherwise, that he liked Lily Evans. He, Peter and Remus could all come to that agreement. "Would you like some chocolate?" Remus asked in a pant and a wince.

It was a wonder that he was keeping up at all with the bandages around his waste and his pasty color. "No." James said harshly but then turned to apologize, "I'm sorry, yes I would like some. Thank you." he smiled apologetically.

Remus handed him a chocolate and James peeled off the wrapper and shoved it into his robes, giving him a nod of gratitude. Every step Remus took look like it pained him, and it made James wince on the inside. "Where's my chocolate?" Sirius whined.

"You get none." snapped Remus.

Sirius whimpered and looked at his feet while they walked to Madame Pomfrey's office. _Was it his fault? Of course not! He technically knew the spell, he had just switched them up. Healing spells were really all the same._ They entered the hospital wing to find Madame Pomfrey speaking to Professor McGonagall. _Well that's fucking perfect._ "Hello Professor." James squeaked nervously.

She looked them up and down, clearly surprised that they weren't in class. Why she was surprised, Sirius did not know. It was certainly in character for them. "I'm not surprised you are here so soon." she said, as she pursed her lips. They explained what happened to Madame Pomfrey while McGonagall, to her insistence, was in the room with them. "And you needed to perform this spell because?" she prodded.

"I got a black eye…" James said shortly.

"And _how_ did you get a black eye?" she asked.

Sirius spoke up, "I use a lot of hand expressions and I hit him in the eye… such a shame."

McGonagall saw through their lie. Apparently Snape had told her what the three of them did, or at least what James and Sirius did. She ended up taking ten points from Gryffindor, five each from James and Sirius. They looked down guiltily, McGonagall had that effect. "You never ever attack another student! You're lucky I'm not sending you to the headmaster! How could you boys be so foolish? Never in any of my years have I had students-," but Sirius tuned the rest out since he was looking down.

Any other teacher could not make them feel as bad as McGonagall did. She finished with, "I expect all of you in class once this is sorted out, otherwise you will not appreciate the consequences."

After she left, Madame Pomfrey fixed James nose while Sirius laughed, teasing that he should have kept his nose like that and that it looks worse now. He couldn't help it, the situation was too hilarious. "Shut up Sirius!" James said in a whiney tone, that reminded Sirius much of Regulus when he used to tease him.

Finally Madame Pomfrey had had enough and had snapped at Sirius and shooed him out. "But that's not fair! They're my friends!"

"Go to class! You _and_ Mr. Pettigrew. Out! Now!"

Sirius huffed and left with Peter. He had no intention of going straight to class, he'd wait for James and Remus. Peter looked at him expectantly, "I take it we aren't going to class right now?"

He smiled mischievously at Peter, and with a marauderish glint in his eye said, "You'd be very right Mr. Pettigrew."

* * *

A/N: Sorry this chapter is a little shorter than the others...


	7. Chapter 7: James Potter

**DISCLAIMER: This is not mine. The wonderful magical world of Harry Potter belongs to the one and only J.K. Rowling.**

James

James' nose had returned to its actual size, well that's what Pomfrey had said. James insisted that it was different and it looked awful. "James, you're fine." croaked Remus who was now lying down on the cot across from him.

"Mr. Lupin is right," Pomfrey said firmly, "Now it's time for you to take your leave and _go to class."_

Pomfrey had said the last part sharply, but James wasn't so sure. "What about you? I can't leave you alone in here!" he said to Remus, quickly forgetting his nasal condition in favor of the camaraderie between the two of them.

"James, I'll be _fine._ " he said with emphasis, "It's just going to take a bit to heal from…the muggle operation."

"But—," he began before Pomfrey cut him off.

"Mr. Lupin needs to rest, so leave now or I will shoo you out myself." she huffed, puffing out her chest.

James pouted and looked over to Remus who gave him a reassuring smile, which looked out of place on his weary pale face. Remus looked like he was death warmed up, and if it weren't for Pomfrey literally shoving him out, James would have stayed. Sirius and Peter were waiting outside the hospital wing for James and Remus., Sirius was leaning against the wall, his hair tossed back. He saw James come out, "Where's Remus?" asked Sirius.

James' voice was full of concern and disappointment, "Pomfrey kept him. I mean, I see why but still. Remus said he was fine."

Sirius straightened out, he knew Remus hadn't been truthful. "Well he sure as hell didn't _look_ fine. Should we go get something to eat and come back? I hear there's chocolate pudding," Sirius said offering. "What you _should_ do is go to class! You've already lost us enough points." snapped Evans who had just approached them.

James rolled his eyes, "Says you! You're out of class too."

"I have _permission_ to be, unlike _you_." she said sharply as she held up the hall pass, which was just a wooden paddle with the word _'_ charms' on it. "You should get your arses back to class right now."

 _Ugh_ _Evans_. She just had to come at a time like this, being all holier than thou. _I can't believe I had_ any _fondness for the girl._ She could be such a stick in the mud with her tone. Evans scowled at James, examining his face that had no trace of her punch. Lily snapped at him, "I see you've cleaned up Potter." she scowled as she laid her eyes upon his smug face, angry that her punch hadn't landed,"I have half a mind to tell McGonagall you are _still_ out here, but then I thought of how poor Gryffindor will lose more points. I'd have thought our house meant more to you." she said critically.

"It does. Very much." James said firmly, crossing his arms and puffing out his chest.

If there is one thing James wouldn't stand for, it was being accused of disloyalty, especially from a friend of Snivellus. Evans was the disloyal one, not him. "Well you've cost us a lot of points. It's hard for me to make them up all in one day." she said angrily.

"Right Evans, I forgot how _smart_ you are." Sirius said in a biting tone, his grey eyes stormy.

James tilted his head back and stepped closer to her, but she didn't back away. "You won't _tell._ I know you won't."

"No I won't." she said frankly, before heaving a deep sigh, "Severus isn't a saint either…"

"Are you admitting your precious _friend_ is flawed?" James asked with an arched eyebrow, "You _are_ the company you keep."

She stared at him and then at Sirius and then back to James. Clearly that hadn't been the response she was looking for, perhaps a more mature one, but James Potter was eleven years old and didn't know the meaning of the word yet. She stood up taller and puffed out her chest, so she was nearly touching noses with James. Her straighter posture made it evident to James that she was indeed a slight bit taller than him, _slight!_ He watched her bright green eyes give a short glance at Sirius and then turned back to James, "I think that says more about you than about me…"

Her icy words took everyone by surprise; even Peter let out a small gasp. With those harsh and cruel words she left, her dark red hair whipping James in the face. James grew hot in the face and called out, "You're such a brat Evans!"

Evans was already gone but Sirius tensed up at her words and frowned sadly, "She's right"

"No she's not! You're great and anyone who says differently is going to get hexed." Peter said firmly, crossing his arms.

Sirius cast his eyes down. "I hexed Snape." he said lowly, barely above a whisper.

"Because he _deserved_ it. If anyone is up to their eyeballs in Dark Arts, it's that little slimeball." James said in a determined tone, placing a reassuring hand on his best friend's shoulder, "Now come on, let's go to class. We've got to take notes for Remus."

Neither Sirius nor Peter looked so sure about leaving Remus in the hospital wing. "We'll visit him later, okay? But for now we have to go to class and take notes for him. You know how serious he is about his school work." James reasoned.

It was true. Remus was the most diligent worker out of the four of them, and James was 'humble' enough to admit it. He knew he'd be mad if he did poorly on the next exam, the boy had so much self shame for reasons unknown to James. The pair continued to pout, "Madame Pomfrey won't let us in though. How will we see him?" Peter asked in a defeated tone.

"Peter's right! How are we going to get in? What if he doesn't want to talk about it?" Sirius asked, firing off rapid questions.

James smiled, there was a gleam in his eyes that spelt trouble. He was quite glad that they had asked, he had wanted to use his cloak for some time. They'd no doubt be impressed by it, and it really would solve a lot of their problems when sneaking out and play a great role in their pranks in the future."I have something. I'll show you after Potions."

Charms was going to let out soon anyway, so James thought it useless to even go at this point, and instead the three of them headed straight to Potions. "You've got to be kidding me Potter! You can't just say something like that and then say, 'tell ya later'." spat Sirius.

"Yeah," Peter piped up, puffing out his chest a bit, "You've got to tell us."

"Well we don't exactly have a lot of time to go back to the dorms now, do we? No, we'll go at lunch which is _right after_ Potions." James said with a smirk.

Being the ever so immature one, Sirius said in a pout "If you don't tell me then we're not friends anymore."

James shrugged, "Well that means you won't see Remus. It'll just be me and Pete."

Sirius narrowed his eyes and scoffed in defeat as they dragged their feet towards the Potions classroom.

The three of them quickly took their seats in the Potions classroom. James didn't think he could handle a class without Sirius being right beside him. Sirius carelessly threw his bag and school items onto the floor and put his feet up on the desk, leaning back against his chair allowing his hair to fall back elegantly. _Oh Merlin, there's no time for this._ "Mate, what are you doing? You've got to take the notes." James scolded.

Sirius had an affronted look, "Me? Why me? It was _your_ bright idea to go to class."

"Come on Sirius, we all know that you have the best handwriting. James can't do it, it gets smudged." Peter pointed out.

"Oi! It's not my fault I'm a lefty." James said in protest, giving a childish pout.

It was true that he insisted it be Sirius, but he thought the reason should've went unspoken. "James, we know it's not your fault, but at the same time, the notes need to look legible." Peter said in a sympathetic voice, before turning to Sirius in a schmoozing one, "I'm sure Remus would _really_ appreciate it Sirius."

James appreciated Peter's ability to schmooze and manipulate. Peter knew what to say to get someone to do something, even if it meant compromising his position or beliefs in the process. His fault was that he too could be easily persuaded into things, but that's what made him so fun. Sirius yielded for the second time that day; he put his feet down, letting the chair's legs thud to the ground and finally pulled out a spare piece of parchment ready to write, "You're a pair of gits."

Once the Slytherins trailed in, Slughorn began lecturing about random ingredients and asking about what those could be used for if it were combined together. "Wonderful! Any questions?" Slughorn asked, his voice booming throughout the classroom.

His voice broke James out of his stupor and sadly no one spoke up, "Alright, now go on and pick a cauldron and a partner and begin."

"Dibs on Sirius!" James said quickly, which earned him a smug smirk from his best friend.

"What about me?" whined Peter in a pout, clearly looking as if he felt left out.

James rolled his eyes, _can't the bloke find someone on his own?_ "Vance?! Be Peter's partner, will ya?"

Emmeline Vance, a very pretty girl with bobbed brown hair and warm brown eyes, looked over at him. She looked put out as well, but that was probably because she was left without a partner herself since McKinnon partnered with Meadowes and Evans partnered with Snivellus. She let out a sigh, "Sure. Come on Pettigrew?"

Peter frowned and walked over, he really was hopeless with anyone who wasn't James, Sirius or Remus. James' grabbed Sirius' shoulder a little too tightly, which made Sirius flinch. James swiftly retracted his hand and gave a quick but meaningful apology, "Uh sorry mate."

Sirius gave a faint smile before he went and picked out their cauldron, "Alright, so what do we do?" James asked, wishing he had paid attention earlier.

The three of them, although exceedingly bright, never paid much attention to potions. Slughorn was a wonderful professor and all, but they could never keep their interests in the subject. This time was the exception (for Sirius at least) since Remus couldn't be there with them. "I'll tell you if you tell me _how_ we're going to see Remus." he said, holding knowledge for knowledge.

James huffed. _I should've known._ "No. I want it to be a surprise." he lowered his voice into a low whisper.

"Oh come on, why the _fuck-_ " he said loudly, garnering the attention of the class.

"Mr. Black," Slughorn said in a stern tone, "Please refrain from using that type of language in class."

"Sure thing. Sorry professor." Sirius apologized with mirth in his voice.

"Couldn't have been more obvious, could you?" James snickered.

"I don't do subtly. I go for the 'wow' factor!" Sirius smirked before pouting and turning his amused voice into a whine,"Mate, you've got to tell me."

"Nope." James smirked.

Sirius jutted out his haughty aristocratic chin and snubbed his nose, "Fine, whatever. Good luck with trying to figure out the potion by yourself."

"Boys!" Slughorn said in a frustrated tone, "If you could please return to your assignment and work _together_ , then that would work well in _keeping_ your house points."

This broke the pair out of their childish spat. They responded with quick nods and refocused on their assignment now that Slughorn was breathing down their necks. _It should be a piece of cake._ James' father excelled in potions, which is how he added to their family's fortune. He invented _Sleekeazy's Hair Potion_ which supposedly tames 'the most bothersome barnet', but James wouldn't know as he never used it, much to his parent's dismay. Since James believed he had a knack for potions they started cutting things up and throwing them in, without paying much attention to their work, "So even though you won't tell me about this mysterious object, not that I care to know, what are you thinking? About Remus?" Sirius asked.

"We'd have to do it late at night, sneak into the hospital wing and ask." James whispered to Sirius.

"What makes you think Remus will tell us?" Sirius asked.

James shrugged, "Couldn't hurt to ask."

"And if he doesn't?" Sirius prodded.

James shrugged, "If he doesn't…" but James suddenly found himself cut off by the cauldron that had begun emitting a disgusting odor of rotten eggs and skunk. It quickly boiled over, "Bloody hell!" Sirius yelled.

Then the cauldron exploded a gross pus like liquid that coated both of them. The entire class turned around to see what was going on, Snape gave a disgusted and annoyed look at them and Evans shook her head disapprovingly. Slughorn marched over and washed them off with a spell of some sort, not that they heard because they were complaining. "I do this at least five times every year, you're the first this year." he said as he dried them off with another flick of his wand.

"You hear that Siri? We're the first ones this year!" James laughed.

Sirius looked over at James beaming, "You know what the say, you always remember your first. We're etched into your memories forever."

Slughorn sighed in exasperation, "I fear that'll be true," he shook his head in disappointment, "Though I expected more of the son of the inventor of _Sleekeazy's Hair Potion_."

"Oh I'm quite good at potions when I'm paying attention and not throwing random things in," James said defensively as he crossed his arms.

James really ought to have thought about what he was going to say before he said it. "You weren't paying attention?" Slughorn asked with an eyebrow raised before he strut up to the front of the class and began a lecture, "Potions isn't a subject that should be taken lightly. It can be dangerous, keep that in mind. Ten points from Gryffindor."

"Dammit." the pair whispered in unison.

The bell thankfully saved them from receiving any more point deductions. _The school can't handle our awesomeness._ Peter caught up with them and wrinkled his pointed nose, much like a mouse, "You guys stink."

"Still?" James asked, taking a whiff from his sleeve and then gagging at the disgusting rotten egg like smell.

"Yes." Peter said frankly, "Gosh, what did you two do with your potion?"

"I don't know, but Slughorn was supposed to make us spell better," Sirius said as he took locks of his hair and sniffed before cringing,"Do you think it will go away on its own?" murmured James who sniffed his under arms. He began to run his hands through his hair trying to get the goo out.

Snape who was pinching his nose came up. "No it won' were around fourteen slug shells in it, you'll need to shower." he said in an irritatingly smug way, "You do know how to do that, right?" teased Snape.

"Do you?" snapped Peter, narrowing his watery blue eyes.

James gave a snort of approval. Peter had a surprisingly sharp sense of humor, and always knew how to deliver low blows. Snape's eyes narrowed, which made his eyes appear black against his sallow face. "You'd better watch yourself after what you did to the broom." Sirius hissed, his grey eyes reminding James of clouds that accompanied a violent thunder storm.

Snape smugly smirked but it came out as a sadistic smile, "Not so brave after a little hex, are you Sirius?" he teased.

"His friends' call him Sirius, and you are _not_ his friend. It's _Black_ to you." Peter said pointedly.

Snape looked like he'd been hit with a confundo charm. James would've snapped a picture of Snivellus' stupid face if he had a camera on him. "Black? As in the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black?"

"Impressed now, are you Snivellus? Excited to meet the heir?" Sirius said with a sense of entitlement and superiority.

"Heir?" Snivellus asked, looking constipated.

Snivels clearly didn't know who he was talking to. As much as he hated the title, James knew that it helped that it gave Sirius a sense of superiority even though James knew that his best mate was superior to Snape in all ways. "I suggest you sod off!" Sirius growled as he pulled out his wand, causing Snivellus to step back.

"MR. BLACK! Come here." sounded a scolding voice that was not yet done with its list of names "You too, Potter and Pettigrew."

Snape swiftly fled, as James turned to see a rather red faced McGonagall looming near them.

The three of them cautiously approached her, "First I've come to track you down for bullying Mr. Snape earlier and that the three of you seemed to have missed your charms class and now that I'm here I see you antagonizing Mr. Snape, AGAIN. Detention!" she said, placing her hands on her hips.

It was quite a funny sight and James couldn't help but snicker along with Sirius. Peter was the only one with common sense and remained quiet and avoided eye contact. McGonagall was not amused and ended up serving them detention at that very moment. "But it's lunch!" Peter cried in disapproval, "We're hungry."

"I will provide you with lunch while you work on your lines. One hundred written lines of 'I will not miss class' and then another hundred of 'I shall not antagonize other students because it's wrong'. Now I suggest you follow me on my way back to my classroom. Let's go." she said, clapping her hands as she ushered the three of them to her room.

James gave the other two a look that said, _I'll show you later._ Finally, James was able to pull Sirius and Peter away from the blasted Transfiguration classroom. They had spent the rest of the day in detention since Sirius and James couldn't help themselves but draw rude pictures of Snape and the Slytherins. This earned them more detention time and an hour of untransfiguring needles to matches, which also served as their homework. By the time they had left, night had fallen and they walked to the common room, moaning and complaining about the long tiresome work, "Can't we wait to see him? I don't want to get caught sneaking out and earn _more_ detention. Ugh, my hand is still cramped." Peter complained.

"No." Sirius said firmly and with mild disgust that Peter would suggest otherwise, We're going to go see him _tonight_."

"What if he doesn't want visitors," Peter reasoned, "Shouldn't we respect his privacy?"

James scoffed, "Of course he wants visitors. Remus may be quiet but he doesn't want to be lonely."

Peter seemed to disagree. "Look there's always something off with Remus. I like Remus, but sometimes he seems a little…loopy. I don't know if you've noticed, but at night I'll hear him murmur to himself a lot and talk with _someone_ who isn't there."

"Geniuses talk to themselves a lot. And Remus is _not_ loopy." said Sirius in a low voice. James was too tired to step in, but luckily he didn't have to as Peter didn't protest any further, "Well it's getting late and Pomfrey doesn't want us there. If we're seen then—"

James interrupted, "We won't be seen, because I will now reveal to you the secret to tonight and our future's success."

Once everyone had left the common room and had gone off to bed, The three arrived to their room and James made his way to his trunk where he pulled out the grand reveal: a cloak. Sirius gave an unimpressed snort, "Wow, we can play ghost with a sheet. No one will notice for sure,"

James rolled his eyes and flipped it around to cover himself with it, allowing only his head to show. Peter let out a tiny scream, and Sirius went wide eyed. "Whoa," he said almost too quietly,"Is that a––?"

James smiled smugly, "An invisibility cloak? Yeah it is. And this is how we're going to go see Remus."

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A/N: I am so sorry for the long wait in between updates. I lost my beta reader and it took me so long to edit this chapter. I really appreciate everyone's reviews and I want you to know that it's super helpful. Thank you!


	8. Chapter 8: Remus Lupin

DISCLAIMER: This is not mine. The wonderful magical world of Harry Potter belongs to the one and only J.K. Rowling.

 **Remus**

Remus laid on the stiff hospital cot, panicking instead of resting. _I've already missed so many classes, which will no doubt affect my grades. I'll fail and get kicked out. Does Hogwarts expel students for poor grades?_ He also was internally berating himself for the shady and stupid as fuck lie of his appendix bursting. _What kind of excuse was that? They obviously hadn't believed me! I'm such a shit liar!_

His friends would eventually figure out he was lying and then they'd abandon him, or if they figured out his secret, have him killed. _Friends._ Remus mulled over the word and the concept; he had actual friends. Friends who made him feel normal, who made him feel valued but it couldn't be. _How can I do this to them? How can I let them associate with a creature like me? I'm selfish, I'm so selfish!_ He felt his chest tighten and at that moment he felt alone; he should've been accustomed to it by now but then again, the thought of having friends and then having to leave them was terrible. His eyes became wet and a small silent sob left his chest, allowing small tears to roll down his cheek. He was broken out of his state of misery when he heard a thump and a loud "Oof!"

"Way to go Pettigrew," said a brash voice.

Remus suddenly became alert and had to suppress the wolf's urge to growl, as wolves do when threatened. He reached for his wand and muttered the _lumos_ charm and to his shock and surprise his friends were staring at him, or at least their heads were. Remus let out an undignified yelp as the rest of their bodies were uncovered from a cloak, the three of them smiling at him. "Hi Remus," they said in unison.

Remus' mouth parted and his eyes went wide., "What? How are you—" he blinked making sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him.

"Pretty cool, isn't it?" grinned James, holding up the invisibility cloak as Remus held up his lit wand, "We had to see you," he emphasized with a face of all seriousness.

Sirius sputtered, "Are you alright mate? We've been worried." he asked concerned.

Remus panicked, trying to figure out what to say. What was there to say to three people who decided to break the rules when they just met you? What was there to say to the people he'd decided that he would have to ignore and separate from? _That's a problem for a later time._ Realizing he'd been silent for a sizable moment, Remus sputtered out a quick response "Yes I'm alright mate. Madame Pomfrey kept me here, said I was too 'weak' to go back to class just yet. I told her it was nothing but she wouldn't have any of it."

 _That's a good lie. James was there, and it's valid. It's true, basically the truth._ He glanced to the right and saw his face reflecting off of a steel pitcher, he was pasty and he looked weak.

 _"_ You're crying. Why are you crying? Are you in pain?" Sirius asked in a rapid succession.

Remus just realized that they had walked in when he was practicing his art of self-loathing. He wiped the wetness from his face using his sleeve, "No, I'm fine." he said as he threw out another lie, "The light hurts my eyes."

 _I am on_ fire _today._ "Jeez mate, sorry about that." James said as he dimmed his lumos charm, though he didn't look like he believed him, "That better?"

"Yeah, it's perfect. Thank you." he replied politely and then took notice to big sacks next to his friends, "What are _those_?"

"Ah, thought you'd want to know." Sirius said with a mischievous grin.

They opened the bags to reveal an assortment of items. Peter had brought Remus dinner and a handful of chocolate, which Remus proceeded to share with everyone. Sirius' contribution had been extra blankets and pillows, "I wasn't really sure what to bring since Peter brought the snacks…" Sirius said awkwardly.

Remus smiled at Sirius' kind gesture, "It's great!" he said that made Sirius smile, a smile that made his grey eyes sparkle.

James brought exploding snap to play while they munched on their small meals. James told about their exploits after he had left the hospital wing. "Lily Evans said that?" Remus asked, letting his carrot fall out of his hands.

"That's right," Peter said in a disapproving tone, "She practically told Sirius he was _evil_ because he came from the House of Black."

"She did _not._ I said that 'you are the company you keep' in reference to Snivellus and then she _said,_ 'that says more about you than me'! Don't put words in her mouth." James snapped defensively.

"The _meaning_ was there! And why are you so defensive of her? First you thought she was funny then you couldn't stand her. Make up your damn mind." Sirius huffed.

Remus' head ached and he did not desire to hear a spat over Lily Evans, though he was disappointed in what she had said. She had seemed so sweet. "Well what happened next?" Remus prodded, eager to move on.

"Well then we went to potions and after that we had a falling out with Snape. That's when he discovered that Sirius was of the," and in Peter's most posh voice, " _Noble and Most Ancient House of Black._ "

"More like the _Noble and Most Ancient House of Bullshit,_ " James snickered, "I honestly didn't think that Snivellus could look any paler. It was a priceless look Remus. I wish you had been there…"

Remus frowned, although he ached to be with them, he didn't really want to see them taunt Snape. Remus knew for a fact that he wouldn't be able to stop them; _I really am a terrible Gryffindor._ Breaking himself, yet again, out of his internal struggle, he turned to Sirius who was looking unusually solemn and stoic. Sirius' grey eyes reflected the flickering candle lights. "Sirius?" Remus prodded, hoping that they hadn't offended him by talking negatively about his family.

"Hm?" Sirius asked, finally returning his attention to the group, "Oh yeah. Snivels looked pathetic but that's not important. So we got detention, which is why we couldn't see you _immediately_ after. We're really sorry about that."

Remus smiled. _They have nothing to be sorry for, but I do. I really don't want to leave them._ "Thanks for coming. I just wish you hadn't broken the rules for me."

"Oh don't worry about it. Why were rules made if not to be broken?" Sirius laughed, and spoke quickly before Remus could interject his point, "And it's not like we'd get caught anyway, especially not now that we have James' invisibility cloak!"

Remus smiled and turned to James, his eyes lit up with wonder. "Bloody hell James. My dad used to read me _The Tales of the Beedle and the Bard,_ which is when I first heard of these but James, these are extremely rare! Or at least a quality one like this is," Remus said excitedly as he picked up and inspected the condition of the cloak, "I can't believe you've got one, a real invisibility cloak!"

James had a guilty look on his face, "Well _technically_ it's my dad's and he might not know that I have it," but his regretful face faded quickly and James' shrugged, "It's not like he uses it though."

"And I take it that you are going to put it to use?" Remus heaved a heavy sigh.

"Not ' _I_ '. _We._ We're a _team_ Remus and the four of us are going to use it. I mean think of the possibilities! Really think about everything we could do with it. This place is huge and we can explore all we want at night. We can get late night snacks, sneak into Hogsmeade, and play thousands of pranks!" James said, bouncing on the cot sending stray crumbs to the floor.

Peter, James and Sirius looked absolutely thrilled with the idea of exploration but Remus wasn't too sure. He couldn't stand breaking the rules since that correlated with breaking Dumbledore's trust. The man who let him into Hogwarts when no other headmaster would've done so. Nevertheless, Remus promised himself to never forget the kindness that Dumbledore had extended. "Remus? Come on mate, it'll be fun." James said, poking Remus' sore shoulder and he let out a tiny whimper.

He looked down at his hands and whispered, "We could get in trouble. We could get expelled."

Sirius leaned into him, almost too close to be socially acceptable, "Come on Rem. What's life without a little risk?"

Remus heard Peter mumble "Longer and safer," but Remus chose to ignore him.

He looked up into Sirius' eyes, the flames now dancing mischievously and replied with a small smile, "A life worth living."

Sirius leaned back and folded his arms satisfied, "I told you I could corrupt him James. I told you."

Remus laughed and basked in the company of his friends. For a moment, he forgot his despair and self loathing. _I can't leave them, I just can't. As selfish as it is, Sirius is right. Being friends with them is worth the risk; I came to Hogwarts to have a chance at life and this is it._ They spent the next hour delving into the types of mischief they could get into, talked about how to get back at Severus and coming up with numerous pranks they could pull; some of which were tasteful and creative and the others which were lazy and unoriginal. One for instance was a prank on the new Defense teacher, "So then we'll release a bunch of Sparrows in his classroom, because apparently his name is Sparrow." James suggested proudly.

" _Professor_ Sparrow," Remus corrected, "And we haven't even had his class yet. What if he's nice? I don't want to get on his bad side."

"I think the _true_ problem that lies within this prank is that it is _lame!_ You can do better than that James." Sirius said in a dismissive tone, looking at his nails.

"It's late and I'm tired. _You_ come up with something then." James said loudly, pushing out his lower lip in a pout.

Just as Sirius was going to suggest something, a lean figure swept into the room. "What are you three doing in here?" shouted Pomfrey, looking absolutely livid.

It was a good thing the candles were dimmed, because Remus would've probably lost all of his Gryffindor courage if he had seen her face. James quickly tried to defend the group, "We came out to…"

"I don't care!" shouted Pomfrey.

"Then why did you ask?" said Sirius sassily, which was definitely the wrong thing to say. Remus couldn't help but smile at Sirius' quick snapback.

"Students are not allowed out of bed at this time of night!" shouted Pomfrey.

"But we aren't out of bed, see?" Sirius gestured to them sitting on Remus' bed, "We are technically _on_ a bed."

"You know that is not what the rules mean," said Pomfrey angrily.

Remus could make out the faint shadow of Pomfrey, who was placing her hands on her hips. "Then the rules need to be clearer, I mean how are we _supposed_ to know if they are not clear?" Sirius said cheekily.

"We're just innocent little first years." Peter added in a falsely innocent voice.

 _Honestly, thinking that they can reason with Madame Pomfrey over patient care, these lads are braver than I thought._ "Mr. Lupin," she said his name sharply, "Needs to be _resting._ It is three o'clock in the morning and he, as well as the three of you, should be asleep. You have class tomorrow morning, so go back to your tower this instant and get into your _own_ beds. Five points from Gryffindor for the three of you."

"WHAT?!" the four of them shouted in unison, all lurching forward at the news.

"You can't do that!" James protested before turning to Remus expectantly, "Can she do that?"

Remus immediately went into defense mode, "Please Madame Pomfrey, they came out to see me. It's my fault, please don't punish Gryffindor." he begged.

"They're in trouble because they came out _after hours_ and you, young man, need your rest," she said with an amount of finality that closed the discussion, "Now the rest of you out! I'll be telling your Head of House in the morning. Go!"

The boys' gave a look of forlorn towards Remus who returned an expression of disappointment. "Oh stop it. You'll see each other tomorrow. Now go." Madame Pomfrey snapped in both an annoyed and amused tone.

James, Sirius and Peter took their leave and waved goodbye to Remus. Remus felt bad that points had been taken away because they visited him, but he still had enjoyed their company. Once Madame Pomfrey was sure they were gone, she finally spoke, "Mr. Lupin, you've been dealing with this for sometime, so you must already know how important rest is to your recovery. As your healer, I cannot let you jeopardize that."

Remus turned his face and in a quiet voice, almost low enough to be a whisper, said "Nothing helps. I get better and then I get bad all over again."

"Oh dear," she said sympathetically, "I'm sorry. There's no way I can imagine what you've already been through, at such a young age too. I promise I'll do everything I can to help and make it easier."

"You already have. Thank you." he said politely.

"Here," she said as she placed a potion vial on his bedside table, "It's a dreamless sleep potion, in case you need it."

Pomfrey ended up tucking him in and blowing out his bedside candle. It was nice to say the least; he had never been cared for so gently by anyone other than his parents'. Healers treated him with a great sense of reluctance and without a shred of humanity, as they never warned him if something would hurt and would give his family callous answers. He knew what the wizarding world thought of him. He had never played with other children, his parents were afraid of him accidentally revealing his condition to them.

His parents tried hard to please him, but he was still lonely. He lifted his shirt up, wincing as the movement caused him pain. Big claw marks reached across his torso, and would no doubt leave a scar. _It looks like the wolf didn't like the shack._ The wolf was never happy, especially when it was trapped and isolated but it didn't matter. It was better than hurting anybody, anything was better than that.

Remus hoped it would stay that way. He tried to keep his mind from dwindling on his dark thoughts too much; _tomorrow is Defense Against the Dark Arts, that's exciting._ Remus let out a small chuckle, since it was ironic considering that he was considered one of the darkest creatures in the wizarding world. _A dark creature, that's all I'll ever be._ _Stop it! Dumbledore wanted me here, he said I belong here and I do. I do, don't I?_ Remus was thinking too much so he tried to calm his racing mind and resorted to drinking the dreamless sleep potion that sat on his bedside table. Remus had no nightmares nor did his negative thoughts overcome him, but it was not a good night's sleep.

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A/N: Sorry that this chapter is shorter than the others and that it's been so long in between updates.


	9. Chapter 9: Peter

DISCLAIMER: This is not mine. The wonderful magical world of Harry Potter belongs to the one and only J.K. Rowling.

Peter (Chapter 9)

Peter liked James, he really did! He just could've done without his 24/7 energy and the boy's love of the morning. _Why can't he sleep in? Just for_ one _day!_ "Come on Pete, wake up!" he said loudly, going up to the side of Peter's bed and started shaking him roughly.

"Go back to sleep Potter." Peter mumbled, burrowing his face into his pillow that helped muffle his angry voice.

It was rare that Peter called James by his surname, but at seven in the morning, Peter felt it fit the occasion. "Come on James," Sirius said, Peter could _hear_ him smirking into his own pillow, "You know you can only wake Peter up with the mention of food."

"Shove off Black!" Peter growled, or at least tried to.

Sirius loved to tease him, and his teasing was different towards him than the others. Peter couldn't put his finger on why or explain exactly _how_ it was different, but it was. Right now, he didn't care as long as Sirius handled James. Peter had admitted to himself a long time ago that he wasn't that intimidating, which is why he usually leaned on others to intimidate for him. James huffed loudly, "It is _morning_ and we're now allowed to be out of bed. We can see Remus now!"

Peter had had enough and sat straight up, bonking heads with James. _Ow._ "And I'm sure that Remus, who is a _reasonable_ person, is asleep right now. Sleep that is _critical_ to his recovery and is all around a nice thing, which I am no longer doing since _you_ so _rudely_ woke me up!"

James stepped back, still rubbing his head. "He does make a good point," Sirius pointed out, who was now out of bed and pulling on his robes, "No reasonable person would be up."

"I'm up." James said defensively, narrowing his eyes at Peter and Sirius.

"Case in point." Sirius said as he lazily brushed his hair that was starting to grow longer.

Peter snickered, pleased that Sirius found a new target to tease. Peter finally managed to get himself out of bed, but was quickly pushed back into it by James who had heard his taunt. "Traitor." he said in a pout, folding his arms across his chest.

Peter got out from the other side of the bed, "Whatever," he grumbled, his mood souring, "Let's just get ready to get some breakfast."

He grumbled as he put on his robes, _if Remus were here then I wouldn't have to be up this early._ To be truthful, Peter liked Remus quite a bit. He wasn't as 'cool' as James and Sirius, but he was more patient and had a quiet sense of humor that was always inclusive, or at least between the four of them. It upset Peter that Remus had been ill, since he usually was the one who let him get a word in. Sharing blood status with Remus made Peter feel like they were their own group, as it gave them something in common and something to connect to by referencing muggle culture. As much as Sirius and James stated that they didn't care about blood status, it hardly escaped Peter's attention that certain privileges came with being a pureblood.

The three quickly, or at least quickly for Peter, made their way to the hospital wing. "I'm telling you, he's going to hate us for waking him up." Peter said as he rubbed his dry eyes.

 _I'll never forgive them for waking me up this early._ "No he won't. You saw him last night! He was thrilled to see us then and he'll be thrilled to see _me_ now." Sirius boasted, tipping his chin up in an aristocratic fashion.

"Us. He'll be thrilled to see _us_ Sirius." Peter corrected in a short tempered tone.

Sirius ignored his comment and the three marched on, they finally and subtly opened the doors to the hospital wing only to find McGonagall already there speaking to Remus. She turned around and looked displeased with their presence, " _What_ are you three doing in here?"

James stepped up and spoke quickly, "We're here to see Remus at a time that we're allowed to be out of bed."

"Yeah Professor, we're here without breaking school rules at all." Sirius said as he tried (and failed) to give an innocent smile.

"Oh really? And what was your excuse for last night when you were out of bed after hours?" she asked, giving them a disapproving stare behind her spectacles.

"Friendship?" Peter said in a high and kiss up voice that McGonagall did not find amusing.

She sighed, and walked closer to them "Seeing as how Madame Pomfrey already removed points from the three of you, I will not give you detention. But, if I ever catch you out of bed again then you will be punished accordingly," McGonagall turned to Remus and her voice gentled, "Feel better Mr. Lupin. I'll expect to see you in my class today."

Remus gave her a weak smile and nod as she ushered past the boys and out the door. Remus turned to them with a stronger smile, "Hey, what are you doing here?"

"We came to see you." James said with a grin,"We had to make sure that you'd be ready for our first day at Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"I am. I just hope our professor is ready for _us_ on his first day teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts," Remus chuckled and looked up, "Dear Merlin, please help him."

Sirius gasped and in mock offense said, "What on Earth are you talking about Remus? We're a _delight_!"

Peter and Remus couldn't help but scoff at that. Even Peter was humble enough to admit that the four of them were not the most well behaved students in their already short time at Hogwarts. Peter's stomach rumbled loudly and embarrassingly, "Uh Remus? Are you well enough to go with us to the Great Hall and grab some breakfast?"

"Uh yes, anything's a welcome change to _hospital_ food. Madame Pomfrey is lovely, but her cooking skills could use some work." he smiled as he grabbed his bag underneath his bed.

They took their seats in the Great Hall where only a few other students were eating breakfast. "I _told_ you it was too early. No one wants to be up at this ungodly hour." Peter said as he reached to pile scrambled eggs onto his plate.

"I want to be up this early," James said, his mouth full of food.

Peter wrinkled his nose in disgust, and thankfully Sirius said what they were all thinking, "Please eat with your mouth closed."

James swallowed, "Well well, I didn't know you were such a sucker for manners and etiquette."

"I'm not. I'm just have no desire to see your chewed salivated food." Sirius said, narrowing his eyes at James as he stabbed some egg onto his fork.

James shrugged and continued to eat. If it were Peter who voiced his disgust, he doubted that James would've responded as well. As Peter reached for an extra strip of bacon, he saw Sirius' eyes light up. "Oi, look who it is!" Sirius said excitedly, elbowing James causing him to choke on some of his eggs, "Luscious Lucius and Narcissistic Cissy at three o'clock."

The three of them directed their gazes to Malfoy and Narcissa Black who were conversing. "Oh Lucius," James said in a shrill voice that poorly mimicked Narcissa's, "Is it true that you are the stupidest boy to ever have lived?"

Peter snorted and in a snobby posh voice that was supposed to imitate Malfoy responded, "Oh yes it is true. Isn't it obvious? Only a totally stupid lad would fall for a narcissistic prissy witch like you."

Remus choked on his orange juice and by the look of his watery eyes and red face, had probably snorted it in which caused Peter, Sirius, and James to lose it. As they gasped for air, Sirius had taken it upon himself to catapult a soft-boiled egg at Lucius Malfoy's face. It hit his aristocratic face in a clumpy and runny mess with a loud splat, causing the four of them to roar in laughter. It took a moment for Malfoy to register what had happened before turning his fiery gaze upon the four of them. Peter heard an "Oh shit!" and a "Run!" come out of Remus and James' mouth before he was being forcefully pulled from his seat and out of the Great Hall.

"BLACK! POTTER! PETTIGR—," Malfoy shouted but was cut off by the slamming out of the Great Hall's doors.

Peter was still being dragged by Remus, who was surprisingly strong for his fragile frame, "If we can't hear Malfoy giving us detention, then we don't have detention!" Sirius huffed loudly and in large gasps.

"Nice logic," Peter gasped, "I think we can stop running now!"

"Nope! We've got to get to class!" Remus said as he continued to pull him along, "Two minutes!"

It might've felt like two flights of stairs at the rate of speed Remus was running, but they got there in time. The four of them burst through the door gasping for air, or at least Peter was, and quickly realized that their professor had yet to come in. They made the unfortunate observation that the desks were in pairs and everyone was already occupying one or two, leaving no freedom for them to sit together. "What. is. this.?" growled Sirius.

A very pretty girl turned around and in an airy voice that sounded a tad condescending said, "We have seating charts. I suggest you find your seats," she said before turning to James, "James Potter? You're next to me," she smiled kindly.

James looked at the three of them ruefully before taking his seat next to the Ravenclaw girl. Anyone could tell that the four boys' were in a foul mood since the professor had assigned a seating chart. "This is bogus. Why do we need seating charts? There is no fucking reason!" Sirius cried indignantly when he saw he wouldn't be seating directly next to James, but instead across the aisle with another Ravenclaw boy, Ethan McCloud.

Peter looked for his seat, and sadly his search took him further and further away from his friends before he saw his nameplate. "Stop complaining. I'm on the other side of the entire classroom. At least you have James!" Peter complained.

"Excuse you, you have me." Remus rolled his eyes, "Will you two pipe down? We'll get in trouble."

Peter hadn't noticed that Remus had followed him, though this new revelation made Peter quite pleased, "I'm sorry mate."

Peter and Remus took their seats, and James seemed to be acquainting himself with the girl next to him. "I'm actually glad I'm sitting by you, you're a great—," but Peter didn't get to finish his sentence ,because Sirius wouldn't shut it, "No. I'm fucking upset about this dammit."

"I do not tolerate such language in my classroom! Ten points from Gryffindor!" said a loud and firm voice.

Peter face palmed himself. _Of fucking course._ "Dammit." hissed James.

"Another ten points!" shouted their professor.

Well, it looked like James and Sirius weren't getting on their professor's good side. The professor introduced himself as _Professor Sparrow._ "Mr. Black, is it?" he said in a firm tone.

"Mr. Black is my father. You can call me Sirius." Sirius said cheekily.

"Dammit Sirius." Peter and Remus said in a unison, their volume barely above a whisper. The professor didn't take kindly to Sirius' humour, which in Peter's opinion, was an acquired taste. "Take your seat Mr. Black," he said as he moved his eyes from Sirius to the seat.

Sirius huffed and thumped into his seat, scraping the chair back to put his feet onto the desk to the clear annoyance of both the professor and his desk mate. "Take your feet off the desk, and sit up straight." Sparrow hissed, "I won't ask again."

Peter leaned into Remus, "Why is he antagonizing him?" he asked fretfully.

"Why does Sirius do anything he does?" Remus whispered and in a posh and slightly arrogant tone, "It's because he's 'Sirius Black and he can do whatever the fuck he wants'".

Peter snickered at Remus' impression. Sirius had resigned to following directions though Peter was sure Sirius would push the limits in any way he could. Finally, their new professor got on to introducing himself. "I am William T. Sparrow, but you will address me as Professor Sparrow. I will be your Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor. This year, I'll be—," but as he went on, Peter found that he had no interest in his introductions and started doodling on a spare piece of parchment that had been lying on his desk.

Remus had the same idea, as Peter had watched him and slowly and boringly took out his materials with extra care, as if they'd break from his gentle touch. Though Peter would admit that surprisingly, Remus didn't have the most gentle touch. It was certainly odd that someone as frail as Remus would be so strong, but the proof lied within his throbbing wrist. He'd never admit that it hurt though, since he didn't want to make Remus feel bad. Remus placed his school supplies neatly on his desk and organized it based on product, use, and color.

Remus went rigid and quickly turned to see Peter focusing in on him, "What is it?" he asked fretfully.

Peter was shaken out of his observation, "Huh? Nothing," he said quickly as he felt his face heat up, and probably reddening in.

"Is there something more _interesting_ than our lesson gentlemen?" asked a drawling voice.

It took them a second to register that their professor was calling _them_ out, but thankfully or unthankfully depending on their fellow housemates opinions, Sirius decided to put forth his two cents, "Well seeing as you haven't started the _lesson_ yet and have just been babbling on about yourself, you certainly can't blame them for finding entertainment elsewhere."

Peter and James snickered, but Remus groaned and threw his face into his hands, shielding his eyes. Peter saw Sparrow puff out his chest and his white face turn red, reminding him of a bird puffing out his chest. "Well perhaps, if you're so bored, you can find your own entertainment in detention." he said forcefully as he leaned towards Sirius.

"I'd probably have a better chance of finding it there than here." Sirius mocked.

"For the love of Merlin Sirius, shut up!" Remus stood up and shouted.

"Detention for you too Mr. Lupin." Sparrow said.

Peter saw Remus' face notably pale, "Hey, that's not fair! He didn't do anything but try to help out our house." Peter said defensively, although he wished he hadn't since he too was soon landed with a detention.

James stood up, "If they're going to detention, then I'll go too."

"Sit down Mr. Potter." Sparrow said in an annoyed tone, and although he didn't verbally confirm James' wish, it was certain that James would join them.

Sparrow pushed his limited amount of dark brown hair back, "I am appalled by this behavior, especially by those of Gryffindor house. Fifty points each will be taken from the four of you."

Every Gryffindor in the class looked back at them angrily, causing Peter to shrink into his seat. Sparrow finally started his lesson that involved discussing the properties of different potions ingredients. _Perhaps detention would be more interesting than this._ "Excellent, now silver and dittany mixed together will do what?" he prompted.

A few hands shot up eagerly, though Professor Sparrow wasn't paying attention to those as he had begun to walk up to Peter and Remus. Both of them uneasily looked up, _what did we do now?_ "Mr. Lupin? Do _you_ know the answer?" he asked.

Peter thought that Nearly Headless Nick couldn't look paler than Remus did right now, "Uh-uh no s-sir. I don't kno-ow…" Remus stuttered.

"Are you sure?" Sparrow asked as he ignored the hands still up in the air, "You have no clue of what these two things combined would do?"

Remus shook his head, "N-no sir. I dun-dunno."

Sparrow gave a faint smirk before turning his gaze slowly away from Remus, "Ms. O'Brian?"

The girl sitting next to James lowered her arm quickly, "The combination of those two ingredients would result in a mixture that applied to a fresh bite, will seal the wound."

Sparrow nodded at her impressed, "Wonderful Ms. O'Brian. Five points to Ravenclaw," he said before addressing the class again, "Now this powder has to be applied to a specific bite from a creature. What creature is that?"

Despite the frantic hand waving of James, he was ignored by no surprise. "Ms. McKinnon. Care to answer and earn your house back some points?"

Marlene McKinnon straightened up, "The powder must be applied to a _werewolf_ bite, which of course will allow the victim to live on as a werewolf. Though it matters very little since the humanity of the victim slowly slips away, which is why many would prefer death over a life as a werewolf."

"Excellent ! Five points to Gryffindor." he said, which earned Marlene looks of praise and appreciation, "Now today we'll make this mixture. It's not too difficult, which is why I thought it'd be a great starting point."

Remus looked incredibly uncomfortable and almost catatonic as Peter had gone to get the supplies, "Mate? Is everything okay? Do you need to see Madame Pomfrey?"

 _I knew I shouldn't have pushed him. He still needed his rest, if only I had—,_ "I'm fine Pete." Remus said shakily, "Let's just do this assignment."

Remus was tense throughout the entire activity, though Peter did try to repeatedly cheer him up. "Look, Sparrow was totally wrong in handing you a detention. James and Sirius will find a way to get back at him, you'll see…" Peter smiled.

"Yeah, thanks Pete." he said softly as he carefully divided the silver and dittany and mixed it together.

This really was a one person project, so Peter sat and watched. He felt like he did that a lot. It didn't bother him though, since he had three friends who shined brightly and energetically, and despite his lack of luster, included him in almost everything. The bell finally chimed, and Remus, who had been so careful with his supplies hastily swept everything into his bag and swung it onto his shoulder, "C'mon, let's go to the History of Magic."

"Alright alright! Read chapters one and two of _Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection_ by next class and we'll have a discussion on it. Bring two questions for each chapter to next class. Have a good day!"

Peter noted the assignments, before he hurried out to catch up with his friends. Remus punched James on the shoulder, "Why on Earth did you agree to a detention?"

"All of you got a detention and I didn't want to be the odd one out." James said, as if it was the most reasonable response in the world, before glaring pointedly at Sirius, "Which wouldn't have happened if _Sirius_ hadn't decided to give Sparrow cheek."

"I was just defending my mates. Honestly, Sparrow has a stick up his arse." Sirius scoffed in annoyance, "I mean, he chewed Remus and Peter out for a whisper about who knows what."

"And now we all have detention!" Peter exclaimed.

"We'll get back at him," James said as he threw an arm around Peter and Remus, "Just you wait."

Remus moved out from under James' arm, "I don't want any part of it. I don't want to deal with Sparrow more than I have to. Ugh, this is going to be a long seven years."

Peter thought that if Sirius was capable of showing remorse, he certainly gave a hint of it now. "Well who knows, maybe he won't last the year."

Remus scoffed, "Well, that would certainly be lucky but I'm not the luckiest person in the world."

"Of course you are!" James said cheerily, "You know us, right?"

Remus smiled, "You and Black are a menace to society. Isn't that right Pete?"

Peter beamed at his inclusion, "That's right!" he said eagerly and moved closer to Remus.

Sirius stuck his tongue out at Peter and Remus, "Traitors."

The four of them laughed and went on their way to the History of Magic, certain that the rest of the day would be better.


End file.
